Tears are the natural penalties of pleasure. It is a law that we should pay for all that we enjoy.

The only true source of politeness is consideration.

Neither praise or blame is the object of true criticism. Justly to discriminate, firmly to establish, wisely to prescribe, and honestly to award. These are the true aims and duties of criticism.

Genius is the very eye of intellect and the wing of thought; it is always in advance of its time, and is the pioneer for the generation which it precedes.

Jimmy Fallon's strengths are that he's fun, and he's good at impressions, and he's musically inclined. And my strength is that I'm a joke writer, but I also have no filter, and I think that that's not a talent per se, but it's just a thing about myself that I have found that people like about what I do.

It's hard enough to write a good drama, it's much harder to write a good comedy, and it's hardest of all to write a drama with comedy. Which is what life is.

I don't feel any need to play the role of the clown. In my private life I take a break from humor.

The interesting thing about humor is that in humor, you - in logic, something is A or not A. In humor, it's both A and not A.