I never worry about people not taking my work seriously as a result of the humor. In the end the comic's best trick is the illusion that comedy is effortless. That people imagine what he's doing is easy is an occupational hazard.

It's your outlook on life that counts. If you take yourself lightly and don't take yourself too seriously pretty soon you can find the humor in our everyday lives. And sometimes it can be a lifesaver.

I always thought the biggest failing of Americans was their lack of irony. They are very serious there! Naturally there are exceptions... the Jewish Italian and Irish humor of the East Coast.

If you can get humor and seriousness at the same time you've created a special little thing and that's what I'm looking for because if you get pompous you lose everything.

Humor is a serious thing. I like to think of it as one of our greatest earliest natural resources which must be preserved at all cost.

A joke is a very serious thing.

I hope that America as a whole and especially its architects will become more seriously involved in producing a new architectural culture that would bring the nation to the apex - where it has stood before - and lead the world.

I don't want to say never but I hope I don't become that 'take me seriously now' guy.

I think almost every writer in the world would hope that books would be always talked about with respect and civility and depth and seriousness.

See my hope and dream is that people have a good time watching basketball. It's not church. It's not serious.

At a time when unbridled greed malignant aggression and existence of weapons of mass destruction threatens the survival of humanity we should seriously consider any avenue that offers some hope.

The aesthetic came along the way I think - just through experimenting and going on tour and trying stuff out on stage having fun with it and not taking it too seriously. If I had a ballgown at home I'd wear it onstage. If I found something in a charity shop I'd wear it. That's where it grew from - just wanting to play dress-up.

In high school a teacher once suggested that I be a math major in college. I thought 'Me? You've got to be joking!' I mean in junior high I used to come home and cry because I was so afraid of my math homework. Seriously I was terrified of math.

Film is the manipulative medium par excellence. When you think back on the history of film and the 20th century you see the propaganda that's been made. So there are moral demands on the director to treat the spectators as seriously as he or she takes himself and not to see them merely as victims that can be manipulated to whatever ends they have.

We've been a country that's been fortunate to be protected by two oceans to not have serious attacks on our territory for most of our history. And we were unfortunately reminded in a very devastating way of our vulnerability.

Gay writers now have both a sense of history and the fables that allows them to dwell in the realms of the ridiculous and at the same time talk seriously about things.

But let me tell you this gender thing is history. You're looking at a guy who sat down with Margaret Thatcher across the table and talked about serious issues.

The past always seems somehow more golden more serious than the present. We tend to forget the partisanship of yesteryear preferring to re-imagine our history as a sure and steady march toward greatness.

Despise the enemy strategically but take him seriously tactically.

Pizza certainly has its place in school meals but equating it with broccoli carrots and celery seriously undermines this nation's efforts to support children's health and their ability to learn because of better school nutrition.

But the dollars spent on economic incentives and new investment strategies are wasted unless we seriously address the two most important economic issues in Kansas: education and health care.

As problems like identity theft become more prevalent now more than ever Americans need to take their financial health seriously - and this information is of the utmost importance.

Rogue internet pharmacies continue to pose a serious threat to the health and safety of Americans. Simply put a few unethical physicians and pharmacists have become drug suppliers to a nation.

In the past week it has become clear that the vote on the final healthcare bill will be very close. I take this vote with the utmost seriousness. I am quite aware of the historic fight that has lasted the better part of the last century to bring America in line with other modern democracies in providing single payer health care.