A joke is not a thing but a process, a trick you play on the listener's mind. You start him off toward a plausible goal, and then by a sudden twist you land him nowhere at all or just where he didn't expect to go.

A liberal mind is a mind that is able to imagine itself believing anything.

The defining function of the artist is to cherish consciousness.

It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.

I think it's a travesty that the NBA can't just tell these guys to play basketball two days in a row. It's just a joke to me. We flew commercial, and we were able to play back-to-back.

I wasn't classically trained as an actor; I wasn't pursuing standup comedy. I really came into it through the back door. And there was a benefit to that, I think, because I wasn't pressing; I wasn't pushing.

It's interesting to explore the darker side, but the hero piece is interesting as well. It's like choosing between comedy or drama. I like to do both.

A comedy scene can't really have two weirdoes in it. It doesn't make any sense that way, so you need someone to ground it and call out what's unusual about this person and this scene. Early on, I got pretty good at doing that, and I felt pretty comfortable doing that.