When you get into the series, the progression is much different. You actually have breathing room and the chance to sit down with each actor, which was a part of our process, to talk to them about their pasts.

I think “The Book of Mormon” has made that difference in its field. It changed the game. It’s something that 20 years from now people will still be talking about, hopefully. That’s my goal as an artist, as a creator, as a work for hire, is to choose projects that make people think, make people talk, and make people interested in having a dialogue.

I feel like Jim Carrey is probably the closest thing to a true physical comedian that we have working today.

Josh [Gad] does such an amazing job playing a lovable idiot. Not many people can do that, as convincingly as he can.

There was a 10- and 8-year difference between us, so my brothers were into tormenting me and I was into getting away from them.

When you're doing a pilot, you're doing it in this bubble that almost works against the creative impulse. You don't have time to get to know the actors first, and you have three writers, as opposed to a room full of writers.

Melissa McCarthy just opened this new movie, “Identity Thief,” and Rex Reed, who’s a known critic, wrote a scathing commentary on her weight. I think that weight designation is one of the last frontiers of bullying. I don’t know what the right “ism” for it is, but I think that there’s a level of that that’s happening that’s certainly not okay.