I care more about making sure the story is correct and the characters are behaving in character than I do about the individual jokes.

The best shows are always the ones that are very, very low-concept and just about great characters.

I hate this phrase, but it's a "can do" attitude [that's important] that, whatever you do in life, you should have.

I am of the opinion that there is more high-quality television being produced than at any time in the history of television.

I care more about making sure the story is correct and the characters are behaving in character than I do about the individual jokes.

My main qualm about TV criticism has been when people review TV the way they review movies. They watch the pilot, and write a definitive review of the show. The obvious analogy is that you don't read the first eight pages of a book and then talk about whether the book works or not. People want so desperately in this day and age to declare something thumbs-up or thumbs-down that they declare it immediately.

The first joke I got on the air I remember clearly. Dennis McNicholas and Robert Carlock wrote a sketch where they were evacuating the Titanic, and the last two guys on the entire ship were the two black guys, Samuel L. Jackson and Tracy Morgan. So Will Ferrell was running back and forth, saying, "All first-class passengers get in the lifeboat. All second-class passengers and third-class passengers get in the lifeboat. Let's get all the animals in the lifeboat. Let's put all the empty luggage in the lifeboat."