I'm hosting weekend retreats all over America. It is like a 24-hour slumber party for moms. We laugh eat play games get massages win prizes talk about parenting and even cry a bit.

There is no doubt that religion had already waned under the onslaught of the Enlightenment but it was Freud who provided the radically new understanding of human nature that made any religious explanation of the whats and whys of our personhood seem naive.

I believe that laughter is the best emotional Band-Aid in the world. It's like nature's Neosporin.

Economic medicine that was previously meted out by the cupful has recently been dispensed by the barrel. These once unthinkable dosages will almost certainly bring on unwelcome after-effects. Their precise nature is anyone's guess though one likely consequence is an onslaught of inflation.

Breathless we flung us on a windy hill Laughed in the sun and kissed the lovely grass.

A light wind swept over the corn and all nature laughed in the sunshine.

Earth laughs in flowers.

What I took back because of my exposure to the Jewish music of the 30s and the 40s in my upbringing with my father was that kind of theatrical songwriting. It was always a part of my character. This desire to make people laugh.

People think our music's very aggressive or angry or whatever and it's just the opposite really... I like laughing. And I like being really calm before a show and smiley.

I was irrevocably betrothed to laughter the sound of which has always seemed to me the most civilised music in the world.

My job in this life is to give people spiritual ecstasy through music. In my concerts people cry laugh dance. If they climaxed spiritually I did my job. I did it decently and honestly.

Close friends contribute to our personal growth. They also contribute to our personal pleasure making the music sound sweeter the wine taste richer the laughter ring louder because they are there.

My favorite movies are movies that I go in and I leave deeply affected. Whether I laugh really hard or whether I cry really hard I just want to feel really affected in that moment.

Well look at all of these summer blockbusters. You can't help but laugh a little because you've already seen a lot of these movies 482 times.

I think romance is a tool comedy is a tool and drama is a tool. I really just want to tell stories that challenge the viewer move people make you laugh perhaps push an idea about being open-minded but never settle on a genre or an opinion. I hate genre. I like movies that are original in their approach.

I do love the films I've done in the past. I work hard in my movies and my friends work hard and we're trying to make people laugh and I'm very proud of that.

I grew up watching all these crazy movies European movies and stuff and I guess that I always laughed at things that were a little more offbeat.

I wanted to do another movie that could make us laugh and cry and feel good about the world. I wanted to do something else that could make us smile. This is a time when we need to smile more and Hollywood movies are supposed to do that for people in difficult times.

Well he doesn't make me laugh. I think I've got a fair sense of humour but I can't really see it in him. I've listened to his show on the radio on a Saturday morning and that's a load of mince as well.

This morning I was laughing at my cat who was running up the stairs and slipped and pretended like it didn't happen.

The regular guy still relates to him and Howard is a $500 million guy now who dates a model and drives about in a limo all day. But Howard still knows how to make a plumber laugh and those guys still have him on in the morning because he is a real talent.

I wake up laughing. Yes I wake up in the morning and there I am just laughing my head off.

I never laugh or smile when I am writing. When I come home for lunch after writing all morning my wife says I look like I just came home from a funeral. This is not bragging. This is an illness.

It is not time for mirth and laughter the cold gray dawn of the morning after.