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When you're not involved, other people's unhappiness seems to be about the funniest damn thing on earth because you think you can solve it, that you are God, that you are above this, and that their unhappiness is just such useless toil and agony. If it's you, it ceases to be a comedy.

Humor does not rescue us from unhappiness, but enables us to move back from it a little.

I have an inability to enjoy things, but that's why we're in comedy. If we were happy, we wouldn't be funny, I guess.

At the end of the day, I do think I'm happiest doing comedy. I love it. I know that I can do other things. I love drama as well.

Comedy is surprises, so if you're intending to make somebody laugh and they don't laugh, that's funny.

As comedians, we are all laughing because life is so horrible. Life is so difficult, and I cope with it by making jokes about absolutely everything.

I think serious situations actually make for the best kind of belly laughs. But they're also the hardest to convert into comedy at the outset.

I don't really find things funny unless they're deeply tragic at the same time. I think if you're funny just for the sake of being funny, it's just frivolous nonsense. To me, all the best comic plays have been written about really serious and rather bleak things.

It's much funnier when the comedy can happen with me just trying my best to genuinely do a good thing.

I think a good dollop of sadness is quite a useful thing in comedy sometimes. I think if everyone's happy all the time, it's a bit dull. It's like salt and caramel - you wouldn't imagine they would go well together, but they do.