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I don't see any division between the comic and the tragic. I feel like I'm writing about serious things, and humour is one of my tools. It's not contrived, just part of my world, part of the way things are to me.

Comedy is tragedy that happens to other people.

I actually very rarely see comedy myself, and although I admire the work of some comics, it does come from all over, so I'll get a charge out of some fiction writers and poets.

Comedy is a way to make sense of chaos. It's a way of dealing with things that are overwhelming, that threaten you; it's a way to survive and get closer to the truth.

Comedy tends to come out of things which are quite painful and serious.

I am a passionate believer that comedy is a way of tackling some of the most dark and difficult aspects of being a human being.

There is nothing that is so serious that you can't also see its comic side. Comedy is a way of talking about the most serious things.

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.

I think it would be harder for me not to write comedy because the comic view of things is the one that comes most naturally to me.

Comics write to their point of view. If you're an exceedingly irreverent comedian, you've got to see where that point of view fits or produces the most funny.