I have a great respect for the moviegoing experience. It's such a unique thing. You're not getting up and walking around the house or flipping channels during the dull parts. You're in a dark space, and the movie fills most of your field of vision. You're surrounded by sound, and the colors are deeply saturated, and faces are fifteen feet high. If it's done well, you're really going to feel some big emotions or have some big belly laughs.

I have no trouble selling out—I’m a benevolent hack, in a certain way—but I want to pander for something I believe in.

Everyone has experienced laughing at a funeral, and not even inappropriately. It could be a response to a moment of absurdity or some fond memory. We're human beings so we understand that laughter and crying aren't always disparate emotions.

Once you're alienated, you're on your own. That takes you to the world of the existential, where things just kind of float.

I'm thinking of doing a marital comedy for one of the studios, but I want it to be so painful that it'll have a profound effect on married couples who see it together.

I'd like to think I'd never do a gratuitous fart joke.

I'm not a believer in the pratfall. I don't think it's funny just to have someone fall down.