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Daniel was a wonderful and trustworthy partner. And a fine prankster as well.

I phoned Joe Roth, who was head of the studio at the time, and told him how beautiful the film was, and that I was fully ready to support it, that Michael's work was wonderful and I imagined that Daniel would feel the same. He listened quietly and read between the lines.

I heard David Sedaris read live recently which was a complete delight. Few writers make me laugh out loud on the bus. He does.

So the laughs had to come from the character, not because we had balloons in our shirts or were speaking in high voices. That was very important to us.

I remember interviewing someone I actually felt bad for, and therefore didn't want to take an ironic stance against him. It actually turned out to be a really funny piece.

When I'm writing the book I'm laughing at just how overblown the characters seemed. How full of himself he seems. But I didn't get far enough in the series to really drive the joke of it home.

I recently did the David Letterman Show about my book. He was very serious and made no jokes and it caught me off guard a little bit. He was much more serious than some of the joke shows that journalists get on.

The first thing I read was of my character on the phone talking to Sydney's fiance. Though short, it was so beautifully written, and it made me laugh. I thought if I wanted to play a character, this would be it.

They warned me, 'you're going to be doing the screen test with Daniel Radcliffe a week after the audition.' And then in the hair and make up department, he walked up behind and scared me. But you get used to him quickly because he tries to make you feel very welcome and at home.

I remember how a man once got in touch with me to tell me that he was so engrossed in my book that he had to take a day off from work just so that he could finish reading it. Such kind of responses from my readers is extremely endearing, and it keeps me going.