When I turned about 12 or 13 I realised that being funny wasn't about remembering jokes. It was about creating them.

One can always come up with funny lists and jokes. You know what? I take it back. Not everyone can always come up with funny lists and some jokes. I'm very lucky to have a gift where I can do that pretty ably.

I'm terrible at practical jokes. I do them too well so they're not funny. I end up saying 'Oh no I'm joking I'm joking.'

Sometimes comics will make the observation that it's not jokes that are funny it's characters that are funny. And isn't that true! That's why I always kill jokes. I'm terrible at them because I get the joke right but I can't get the character right and it just goes down like a lead balloon.

If you think something's funny go with that. Most comedians pull jokes from a place of honesty.

Working with Chaplin was very amusing and strange. His films are so funny but working with him I found him to be a very serious man. Whereas the films of Hitchcock are macabre he could be a very funny man to work with always telling jokes and holding court. Of course when I worked with Charlie he was getting older.

Ninety-eight per cent of laughter is nothing to do with jokes which do not deserve to bear the weight of all the funny stuff in the world.

You know what? I never really factor Hollywood into anything. I'm a black actor so I can't really control what Hollywood thinks. I gotta go do my thing and my jokes have got to be funny. Whatever I do has got to be great.

I don't care what the haters and naysayers say. If they make jokes about me I'll laugh because they'll probably be funny.

All these jokes have been pre-approved as funny by me.

I love life in spite of all that mars it. I love friendship jokes and laughter.

There's a glorious sense of freedom in comedy just allowing myself to tell jokes allowing myself to interrupt myself and tell old African folk stories that I made up - or didn't - and Jamaican stories.

Don't make jokes about food.

My whole family is very sarcastic and constantly making jokes.

I now have two different audiences. There's the one that has been watching my action films for 20 years and the American family audience. American jokes less fighting.

Our solution on 'The Simpsons' is to do jokes that people who have an education or some frame of reference can get. And for the ones who don't it doesn't matter because we have Homer banging his head and saying 'D'oh!'

I'm probably going to get in trouble for this but 'American Dad' is one of my favourite shows. It gets very dark in places but the jokes are there.

My dad doesn't get any of my jokes. He laughs at them but he doesn't understand them. He's just laughing because people around him are laughing.

I think in my case I had no choice but to have a good sense of humor. I grew up with my dad Danny Thomas and George Burns and Bob Hope and Milton Berle and Sid Caesar and all those guys were at our house all the time and telling jokes and making each other laugh.

I think 'Family Guy' and 'American Dad' have definitely staked out their own style and territory and now the accusations are coming that 'The Simpsons' is taking jokes from 'Family Guy.' And I can tell you that ain't the case.

I want to tell my jokes. I want to have time with my children. I want to entertain people. And at one point I'll walk away from show business. But I don't want to walk away empty-handed.

The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.

It got very tedious saying the same jokes in the same way with the same attitude.

The jokes are great but what really matters for a comedian is his performance his whole attitude and the laughs that he gets between the jokes rather than on top of the jokes.