It's great fun to memorize somebody's biography, and then liberally play with the real facts of their life and go a step beyond reality.

I write and rewrite and memorize, and then inject my performance with improvising and spontaneity, because if something feels too rehearsed, it's not going to be fun.

I prefer not to wink out from behind the character as myself, saying to the audience, "It's just me here, right, guys?" Peter Sellers is my model, and he didn't do that - he wore his character from head to toe.

It's hard for me to shut off my writer brain completely.

I probably have the most fun on projects where there's some room to improvise.

I am, like anybody else, full of contradictions and personality traits, and I don't know which ones to speak from as a stand-up or what aspects of myself to ask an audience to identify with.

I have a troubled relationship with Hunter S. Thompson, not just because he kicked me out of a bar but also because it's become clear to me that he was not a good person.