Parents tell us things to protect us, or they educate us from their own misinformation or misconceptions.

I made a handshake agreement with my best friend in college, Michael Shamberg, who is now a movie producer. We used to write shows together, and we said, "Let's only do what's fun. Let's never take a job where we have to dress up in a suit."

When a director writes, there's a compulsory arbitration. You have a right to challenge any of the arbitrators, but they pick three of four arbitrators who read all the drafts with no names attached and then allocate credit.

Analyze This is a good movie because Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal are really good. But without the material to put on the play, of course, they couldn't be good. For me, it starts with the writing.

I never work just to work. It's some combination of laziness and self-respect.

I can't imagine a successful comedy movie without a successful comedy performance at the heart of it.

I learned over the years that it's easy to appear smart referencing things that people don't know.