Comedy is an amazing calling. Once you get that first laugh, it's hard to turn away. Then, of course, you're hooked and you have to learn how to survive in the business.

My mother kept the house clean and we ate good. I didn't know we were poor until I started giving interviews.

My son says I never tell stories about anyone who's living.

If you stop and think about it, nearly all great humor is at the expense of someone or something.

When I read Dickens for the first time, I thought he was Jewish, because he wrote about oppression and bigotry, all the things that my father talked about.

And humor has always been a weapon. You want to get even on somebody? You want to attack somebody? Make fun of them.

Comedy is an amazing calling. Once you get that first laugh, it's hard to turn away. Then, of course, you're hooked and you have to learn how to survive in the business.