It was just such a demeaning thing to do, being in silent movies. They'd call you up and tell you, 'Hey, jump off this building!' and they'd give you a hundred bucks, and you'd do it.

There have been periods of my career that I haven't worked for a really long time, like seven or eight months.

I thought I'd have a career playing women in the vein of Ruth Gordon, and we've seen that type almost disappear.

There are so few stories being produced that are human. I suffer with the loss of that. I feel kind of out of place, even though I've continued to work.

Maybe it's because I come from a very utopian world of being a comedian, but I'm used to many live comedy performances going on in any city I'm in, and each of us is trying to be the best at what we do. I don't think of it as a competition so much as a thriving comedy economy.

In the old days of literature, only the very thick-skinned - or the very brilliant - dared enter the arena of literary criticism. To criticise a person's work required equal measures of erudition and wit, and inferior critics were often the butt of satire and ridicule.

Every bad joke, every endorsement deal, all of the things that a typical host would normally get creamed for, people don't mind, because they know I don't cheat when it comes to the work I actually try. I'm a lab rat. I'm a perpetual apprentice. The joke is on me if there is one.

I like working on stories where I can explore the darker corners of childhood without illustrations but with humor.