I had loved magic tricks from the time I was six or seven. I bought books on magic. I did magic acts for my parents and their friends. I was aiming for show business from early days, and magic was the poor man's way of getting in: you buy a trick for $2, and you've got an act.

A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.

Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent.

I was always very shy but as I get older I think, What am I being shy for? You just grow weary of your own hang-ups.

Nothing I do is done by popular demand.

A joke that works is complete knowledge in a nanosecond.

The real joy is in constructing a sentence. But I see myself as an actor first because writing is what you do when you are ready and acting is what you do when someone else is ready.