I love learning new things, and 'Austin & Ally,' honestly, was probably the best foundation for the acting side of me, just cause I learned so much.

You grow as a writer when you learn how to make songs flow from start to finish. That's the best song, when it's such a seamless process to get to this release at the chorus, this euphoric feeling. That's why the Beatles were so good - they did such a good job building so much tension in the beginning to this immaculate release, and then it ends.

When I was on Disney, in the back of my head, I wanted to do - not even for anyone else, just for me - I wanted to do something that was independent. And maybe a little darker.

I like to go off the other actors in the scene, which kind of stinks when you're acting with someone who's not that great.

It's funny, because I was trained as a dramatic actor at New York's Colonnades Theater Lab in the '70s, along with Jeff Goldblum, Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman. People I worked with there saw a comedian in me. I'm still most at home in comedy.

I've been lucky because Hollywood can be harsh and try to pigeonhole you. I've done TV, films, and comedy, done it all... I think I'm spread out evenly among the film community. I've been lucky and keep working with great actors.

Oh man, there's no shortage of craziness happening on the American landscape right now. I'll turn on the TV every day or check out the newspaper, and there is something to find humor in or something to find absolute fear in. Either way, it makes for good comedy.

Doing comedy takes much lesser toll on you as a person. The overall exertion is not as much as a serious film like 'Pink.'