It's not common for a woman on television, especially if she's the mom of the family, to be funny. She's usually a straight man or foil.

I'd just like to see a role for women where someone who isn't traditionally attractive is not portraying the best friend. You know, the character that only speaks in questions. "Gee, are you gonna go out with him? Do you think I look fat?"

Cigarettes are an instant signifier in culture. It punctuates a joke, or puts that extra zing on a punch line. I like them as a prop. I think it can be really useful for character and texture and contrast and all of that.

My mother had been an actress and we came from that world in New York, the theater world and the downtown sort of theater scene, and so I guess we didn't really have what you'd call like a Hollywood kind of life at all.

My mom just didn't put a very high premium on me being like really famous or really wealthy or anything.

I would almost rather be in debt constantly than work with horrible people that I hate.

My mom and I used to listen to records, read, and take train rides across the country in the summer. It was a very chill life. She didn't expose me to anything that was ahead of my development, but she expected me to adjust to her world - she did not expect to adjust to mine.