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

I look for the meaning in what's funny, and I look for what's funny about things that are meaningful to me.

I've never taken a script to the stage or to principal photography and said, "This is perfect. This is as good as it can possibly be." It's not Shakespeare, you know; you know it can probably be better.

We are all several different people. There are different aspects of our nature that are competing.

I've always thought that comedy was just another dramatic expression. I try to measure the amount of truth in a work rather than just looking at the generic distinction between comedy and drama. There's a lot of bullshit drama that leaves you totally cold. And there's a lot of wasted comedy time too. But when you get something honest, it doesn't matter what label you give it.

The first comedy screenplay that I wrote was Animal House and I always thought I could and should be a director but no one was about to give me that opportunity on Animal House.

I had a lot of fun working with John Candy. We had a pretty good rapport.