There wasn't a persona or an attitude that I could reliably write good stuff from.There wasn't a persona or an attitude that I could reliably write good stuff from.

There were times that I would be drunk and just leave a place by myself because I had an impulse and wasn't thinking through the repercussions on others.

When you're coming up with your philosophy and approach to performing comedy, you take special note of the things you disagree with as much as the things you agree with.

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.

There's a way of doing comedy that feels true to the person doing it, that doesn't feel like clown-work or silly faces and antics, but that feels real - like you're playing a real person who has real thoughts and feelings, and it's very grounded. I started to watch all comedy through that prism.

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.

If there's one big thing you can take from Amy Poehler as a performer, it's committing, full on.