When I would be myself, I was being big-headed. I was being egotistical. I was a megalomaniac, when it really was just having not to be a monkey for a few hours a day. And fulfilling the need to be a man.

I've had the greatest respect for my work in this country by Americans. Critics have no brains.

When I was onstage doing the work, adrenaline killed the pain because I never hurt in front of an audience.

I have some very personal feelings about politics, but I don't get into it because I do comedy already.

I tell young comics, 'Do you want this badly enough? It's there. But you have to go get it. And if you think I'm going to give you the key to the lock of that door, there is no key, there is no lock, and there is no door.'

I am probably the most selfish man you will ever meet in your life. No one gets the satisfaction or the joy that I get out of seeing kids realize there is hope.

Comedy is a man in trouble. And without it, there's no humor.