I watched a lot of silent directors who were absolutely great like John Ford and Fritz Lang Tod Browning and also some very modern directors like The Coen Brothers. The directors take the freedom within their own movies to be melodramatic or funny when they chose to be. They do whatever they want and they don't care about the genre.

I can do comedy so people want me to do that but the other side of comedy is depression. Deep deep depression is the flip side of comedy. Casting agents don't realize it but in order to be funny you have to have that other side.

I remember listening to the radio as a kid and finding that the songs always made me feel more peaceful. Funny but the more hurtin' the music was the better it made me feel. I think of that now when I write my songs. I may not be feelin' the blues myself but I'm writing them for other people who have a hard life.

I would love to play 'Funny Girl' or 'Evita ' but I idolize the women who have played those parts. I don't know if there needs to be another version of those shows.

I don't think of myself as a comedian but as an artist a scientist and chemist who just happens to be funny. I started doing stand-up to add another level to my game. I feel that I'm a young rookie with a veteran's skill.

To this day I've found that it doesn't matter what a guy looks like if he's really funny. His sense of humor makes him attractive. On the other hand you don't hear men saying 'No she's not pretty but is she ever funny!'

That's a funny thing fame. People definitely do treat you differently. When you begin to be successful people say 'Don't go changing.' Well that's easy to say but the fact is you don't change at all - other people do.

I think I have a dark view of the world. I have to make everything funny otherwise it all seems so sad.

The most important thing is to write material that YOU think is funny. If you don't think it's funny but you're convinced that other people will think it is well they won't.

I'm one of those hovering mothers and I know it's really important to have an independent child so I'm trying to back off but it's hard. I love him so much and he's so funny and cute to me.

Who knew Rob Lowe was funny? On 'Parks and Rec ' we've got some of the funniest comedy writers some of the funniest comedians in the world working there. And if anything we don't just effuse to one another and be like 'Oh Rob Lowe's really funny ' if he wasn't.

I really don't know what makes a comedian. I think it's a family background and environment. Yet if you put the same ingredients in another person he may never utter a funny line.

I can't watch other people doing comedy. As soon as somebody starts being funny I have to turn off because it upsets me. I get comedy indigestion. I just hate anybody else being funny. That's my job.

Also in a funny way if you have been happily married there are no unresolved areas nothing to prove to yourself after the other dies.

It's interesting that whenever I meet some of the other Bond girls I always have something in common and it is an interesting sorority. We all share about our Bonds. 'Did your Bond do that?' 'Yes mine did!' So it is quite funny conversations. We may as well be in high school.

Women's humor seems to be a little more supportive. It's just kind of trying to make the other one laugh through funny voices and kind of talking about other people. I respond to that. I feel less like I'm going to get beat up in a room full of women than I do in a room full of guys.

What I don't like is when I see stuff that I know has had a lot of improv done or is playing around where there's no purpose to the scene other than to just be funny. What you don't want is funny scene funny scene funny scene and now here's the epiphany scene and then the movie's over.

'Funny Games' was conceived as a provocation. My other films are different. If people feel my other films are or respond to them as provocation then that's quite different. 'Funny Games' is the only one of mine where my intention was to provoke the audience.

It's unbearable when someone changes around you. Just imagine that your life partner changes then it is difficult to cope with. Or your mother. Or your father. They were strong and now they're like a baby - it's not so funny.

Sometimes people get mad at The Simpsons' subversive story telling but there's another message in there which is a celebration of making wild funny stories.

But I think Kiss Kiss Bang Bang really got that thing where if a movie reads really funny and then has some dramatic or violent or sinister stuff in it you can't forget that primarily it has to be even funnier than you read it or that other stuff doesn't work.

My mother was a terrific force in my life. Wartime-generation woman hadn't gone to university but should have done. Was very funny very verbal very clever very witty.

That's why I like to get out there and get people to see the other side of Mitt and know us in a different reflection when you see the family and how funny he is with the boys and with the grandkids. And you know just what a super guy he is. That's part of what I am doing is letting people see the other side of Mitt.

It's funny. People often compare me to other humor essayists. They're usually quite nice comparisons I will accept those gladly. But I am always sort of appalled at the idea of being lumped with other more chick-y female writers. And the truth is probably that neither comparison is accurate.