I went to graduate school at Harvard for one year I worked in the state legislature in Sacramento for one year. I taught school in Compton for two years.

Because I don't do stand-up, radio has always been my equivalent, a place to stay in connection with the public and force myself to write every week and come up with new characters. Plus it's a medium that – having grown up with it and putting myself to sleep with a radio under my pillow [as a kid] – I love. No matter what picture you want to create in the listener's mind, a few minutes of work gets it done.

I didn't have a lot of independent film connections. It really took until the digital film revolution came along that I realized that I could do it myself.

I am one of those people who thrive on deadlines. Nothing brings on inspiration more readily than desperation.

I think the British learn their history through the prism of this gallery of grotesques known as the royals.

Even under the best of circumstances men are hard creatures to trap. Women who flatter themselves into thinking they've trapped one are like people who believe they can get rid of the cockroaches in their kitchen. They're in for a big surprise late one night when they turn on the light.

I was never into candy and games and clowns.