I think poetry can be a kind of secular way in which people can be led to approach the difficult parts of their life, where there's been loss, where there's sadness of a deep kind. If poetry can help people to be more at ease in expressing even to themselves a lot of the darkness and pain of ordinary human existence, then it's serving some kind of cultural role, perhaps more than a cultural role, perhaps it is serving something of a spiritual role.

I go onstage and I talk, and I remember what I'm saying, and I track it.

The racehorses assemble at the starting barrier in all the finery of a mediaeval pageant, the jockeys in silks like figures from a Tarot pack, the bookies in leather and tweeds standing beside their boards each confident that the future has been controlled.

I've done a great job at being universal in my stand-up, which is why, for 'Let Me Explain,' I toured all over the world. These movies I have coming out - 'Ride Along,' 'Grudge Match,' 'About Last Night,' 'Think Like a Man Too' - are putting me in a position to become universal on an even bigger scale.

Being humble matters.

I love making people laugh. And I love laughing.

If you look at me in 'Ride Along,' even though I'm playing two different characters, my demeanor and my tone were not aggressive.