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I Really Think More About Being Honest And Truthful About Feelings And How People Behave For The Movies That I Direct, But I Also Love Movies Like Zohan And Anchorman, Just Balls To The Wall, How Much Can You Make People Laugh In One 90 Minute Period.

-Judd Apatow

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I Really Think More

Judd Apatow

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I Really Think More About Being Honest And Truthful About Feelings And How People Behave For The Movies That I Direct, But I Also Love Movies Like Zohan And Anchorman, Just Balls To The Wall, How Much Can You Make People Laugh In One 90 Minute Period.

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There's Something So Scary About Trying Out New Material And Being Completely Comfortable Jumping Into The Abyss With A Comedic Idea.

I Think A Lot Of Hollywood Is In Retreat Right Now Trying To Figure Out How To Make Money And Make The Safest Bets.

I Think The Story Should Always Determine The Visual Approach. There Are Situations Where You Want Things To Feel Alive And Like Life, And There Are Situations That Should Have Some Magic And The Separation With The Grain.

Any Music Star Would Be Singing About His Lost Love. A Movie Would Be About A Relatable Incident; It Wasn't An Untouchable Magic Dragon Box. It Was Something That People Could Relate To, And When I Vanished A Girl, It Would Be A Story About A Girl That Left Me, Or A Cutting Into Pieces Would Be A Date With A Magician. I Wouldn't Just Vanish A Girl In A Shower, I Would Do The Shower Scene From Psycho [1960] With A [alfred] Hitchcock Cameo.

I Always Thought It Was Important To Overdeliver, And When I Got One Of My First Jobs, Writing Jokes For Garry Shandling When He Was Hosting The Grammys, I Stayed Up All Night And Wrote A Hundred Jokes, And I Thought, "i'm Always Going To Be The Person That Gives Them More Than They Requested, And That's Why They'll Want To Keep Me Around."

I Love When People Work Together Who Know Each Other Very Well. Some Of My Favourite Movies Are People Who Are Close Friends Or Families.

Working Together

All My Cuts Are Always About Three Hours, At The Start, Mainly Because Any Scene In The Movie That's 90 Seconds, I Probably Shot A Five-minute Version Of. If You Just Extrapolate That Through The Whole Movie, I Have A Very Long Version Of Every Scene, Usually Because, If There's One Funny Joke, I'll Shoot Five Because I Don't Know If The One I Like Is Going To Work. I'll Get Back-ups Because My Biggest Fear Is To Be In Previews, Testing The Movie, And A Joke Doesn't Work, But I Have No Way To Fix It Because I Have No Other Line.

I Had A Very Specific Type Of Terrible Network Experience Where I Was Told That People Like Seth Rogen And Jason Segel Weren't Leads, So It Truly Drove Me Mad. So To Be Trusted Is All I Value.

If You Work On Network Tv, They Want To Pick Your Casts, Dictate Your Story And How Your Show Works. It Just Becomes Creativity By Committee, Which Is Never Good.

One Of My Fears Is That I'm Suddenly Not Going To Be Funny, But Still Think I Am. That's Like My Nightmare That I Can Wake Up In A Cold Sweat From.

The Ones [comedies] That I Always Liked, Whether It's Terms Of Endearment, Broadcast News, Or Fast Times Of Ridgemont High, They Were All About Two Hours, Or A Little Bit Over Two Hours. With That Extra 15 Or 20 Minutes, You Can Get To Real Character And You're Not Just Stuck In Plot.

You Want The Audience To Get Your Movie, And You Want The Audience To Like It. It's As Simple As That. If They Don't Understand What You're Trying To Say, You've Failed. Of Course, You Can't Get 100 Percent Of The Crowd To Understand The Movie, But You Know When You've Reached The People You Want To Reach.

I Used To Scream At Everybody At The Beginning Of My Career. I'd Get Really Emotional. I'd Project All My Issues About My Parents And Safety Onto The Executives, So Every Conversation Where They Gave A Note Was Life Or Death And You Don't Love Me.

I Get Literally A Physical Sensation Of Low Self-esteem That Is A Result Of Not Engaging The World And Getting Comfortable That Way.

People Are Disappearing From Movies, And Normal Human Behaviour Is Disappearing From Movies... You Are Not Always Fighting A Creature In Life. That's Part Of Life, It's A Pretty Big Part Of Life, But It's Not All Of Life.

The Only Thing I Knew In The World As A Little Kid Was Comedy. And No Other Kids In My School Cared About It At All. There Was No One To Talk About It With. You Know, We're In A Geek Culture Now Where Comedy Is So Giant. I'm One Of The People That, You Know, Works On Funny Or Die. And There Is Just A Giant Culture Of Comedy Nerds. But Back Then, I Was Alone, And I Had A Little Confidence About It Because I Felt Like, This Is My Thing, This Is The Only Thing That Only I Know About.

I'm Just Trying To Be Truthful And Collaborate With People Who Have Interesting Things To Say.

It's So Difficult To Shock America These Days.

As A Kid, I Was Obsessed With The Who. They Were The Most Important Band To Me. Songs Like "i'm One" Helped Me Get Through High School.

Some Stories Feel Like They Need More Time Or Less Time To Tell. To Not Obsessively Have To Trim Or Add That Final Two Or Three Minutes Is Very Helpful, Because You Can Just Organically Follow How The Story Feels.

I Have To Go Back To Vinyl Every Once In Awhile, Even If My Kids Don't Want To Hear It. I'm Much More Likely To Be Listening To Wilco Or The Avett Brothers.

I Am Always Driven By The Terror Of Humiliation.

You Know, I'm A Big Comedy Fan.

I Definitely Learned To Embrace The Quiet Moments Onstage From Garry Shandling - Relaxing And Not Fighting With The Crowd, Not Raising Your Voice, Not Ever Trying To Win Them Over.

I Didn't Want To Be A Director For Hire. It Really Just Took Me A Long Time To Learn How To Direct And To Feel Up To The Job.

Watching Shows On Netflix Is A Different Experience Because Most People Are Sitting There For Three To Five Hours. Very Few People Even Watch One Episode. So It's Not Like A Movie Theater Where You Want To The Movies To Be Shorter So You Can Go Urinate. You Can Pause And Urinate At Home, And If Something Is Longer, You're Allowed To Stop And Eat Breakfast And Then Watch Eight More Episodes.

Different Experiences

I Hosted The Producer's Guild Awards, And It Went Well, And I Was Very Happy In The Moment, And It Was A Fun Night. But I Wake Up The Next Day Like Someone Who Did Crack The Night Before And Told Off The World, And I'm Ashamed Of The Whole Idea That Anyone Should Listen To Me, Or The Idea That I Need That Much Approval.

My Grandfather Was Bob Shad, One Of Those Legendary Jazz And Blues Producers - He Worked With Charlie Parker And Dinah Washington, And He Produced Janis Joplin's Album [1967's Big Brother & The Holding Company]. He Always Owned Small Labels As Well - He Had A Label Called Mainstream Records In The 70s.

Well, Every Movie Is An Experiment. And The Only Way You Can Grow At What You're Doing Is To Take Chances. You Can't Try To Stick With What Worked Last Time.

I Loved Working In Stand-up, And I Always Dreamed That I Could Make A Movie About It. I Didn't Know If I Would Have The Courage To, Because If You Make A Bad Movie About Stand-up, Then Comedians Will Mock You For The Rest Of Your Life. They're Still Mad About Movies Made 25 Years Ago. But It Was Always A Dream Of Mine, And I Was Glad I Finally Came Up With An Idea That Allowed Me To Explore It In Such A Way That It's Not All About Stand-up, But Stand-up Creates A Great Backdrop For Another Type Of Story.

There Was Definitely A Period When I Just Felt Out Of Sync With Earth.

There's No Logic In How Donald Trump Thinks. I Don't Want Someone Who's The President Who Says 3 To 5 Million People Voted Illegally When There's Zero Proof. It's A Crazy Person.

I Loved The Idea That I Could Write A Joke And Someone Else Would Have To Take The Risk Of Performing It.

I'm Always Talking To People. It's Not That Complicated. I Just Find Somebody And Say, "do You Have Any Ideas." If They Do, We Just Start Thinking Things Around.

To Me, I've Never Understood Why There Is Any Question About Are Women As Funny As Men.

That's Very Important To Me As Well: Presentation And How People Perceive You, The Visual Of How Things Look, Your Posture. I Learned That From [bob] Fosse And Jerome Robbins, From All The Great Theater Directors And The Busby Berkeleys. You Overdeliver: Visually, Emotionally.

I Have To Make Good Things So Good Comedians Want To Talk To Me.

The Cable Guy Was Underbudgeted, So It Was Always A Debate About Whether We Could Have More Days Or Certain Things That We Needed, Because The Budget Was Determined Before The Script Was Written. So That Made It A Hard Production On Everybody. But It's Also A Funny Thing, Because It's One Of Those Movies That Cost $40 Million To Make And Made $100 Million Around The World, But At The Time, It Seemed Like A Disaster That It Didn't Make Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars, Because Jim Was On Such A Tear. But It Was Actually A Successful Movie.

Some People Are Probably Saner. They're Good Performers, And They Go About Their Day. I Just Get Obsessive About It.

It's What I Always Dreamed Of: That You Can Make Tv And Everyone Would Get Out Of Your Way And You Follow Your Vision Without Watering It Down.

It Would Be So Irresponsible Not To Speak Up. I Don't Know What I Would Do In My Home And In My Life If I Didn't Rant A Little Bit And As Thoughtfully As I Can With Some Humor.

A Lot Of Bands That Are Great Disappear A Little Bit Faster Than They Used To. They Don't Get As Much Support For The Long Haul. You Have To Be Pretty Tough To Hang In There.

No Matter How Much You Love Someone, On A Bad Day, You Could Say Something Terrible. All Of The Little Things That You Are Saving To Say, That You're Mad About But Never Express, Sometimes Come Out, All At Once. We All Have These Terrible Moments. That's Just Part Of Being Human.

I Like When People Are Very Passionate About What They Want To Write About. Even If It's Silly, You Can Be Very Passionate About It.

'deadwood.' I Could Have Watched That Forever.

Nowadays, When Kids Decide They Like An Artist, They'll Absorb Everything That Artist Has Ever Done In A Single Night.

I Was In The Recording Studio When Pink Was Recording For A Part Of The Gay Rights Anthem. It Was Just Amazing To Watch Her Perform. She's Just Such An Incredible Singer. She So Funny, And So Smart, Yet She's Doing It For This Silly, Silly Song.

Parents Don't Realize That When They Teach You About The Holocaust Too Early, It Ruins You For Life.

Deer Are Like Dogs. Except For Bambi, They're Pretty Personality-less.

People Like Everything To Work Out, And Anytime You Don't Make Everything Work Out Perfectly, You Really Are Fighting Against What Most People Are Going To The Movies For, Especially In The Summer.

You Can Work On A Movie For Years, And You Won't Know Until You Show It To An Audience For The First Time If It Makes Any Sense To Them At All, If They're Touched, If They Find It Funny, So It's Endlessly Exciting, Because Failure Is Just Right There All The Time, And Your Chances Of Success Don't Rise That Much Based On The Fact That You Succeeded Last Time.

I Like Working With People On Their First Movies. I Think That You Never Get That Level Of Effort Again. And I Think That Most People Only Have A Couple Of Amazing Stories From Their Lives, So You're Getting The Best Of Them.

Back In The Old Days, Everyone Was Shocked If A Band Had A Sponsor For Their Tour. Now, Bob Dylan Can Do A Commercial For Victoria's Secret And People Don't Really Blink; The Beatles' Songs Are In All Sorts Of Commercials These Days And It Doesn't Seem To Offend Anybody. The Times Are Changing.

Times Are Changing

Nobody's Going To Like My Next Movie Because They Liked Trainwreck [2015]. It Has To Work On Its Own, And That Keeps It Really Scary.

I Feel Like It's A Golden Age For Television.

I Love The Lonely Island. I Wish There Was More Lonely Island Movies.

I Feel Like Superbad And Freaks And Geeks Are Somewhat Timeless. That's Always Gratifying, When You Feel Like 30 Years In The Future, People Will Still Get It, And It Won't Seem Creaky. It Won't Come Across Like The Incredible Mr. Limpet.

Everyone Is Wounded. No One Is Healthy Enough To Never Screw Up, When You're In Combat. But, I Like To Show That, And I Like To Show How People Get Back From That. You Have To Forgive Each Other. When You're In The Middle Of A Long-term Commitment, The Essence Of It Is That Everyone Is Going To Have Good Days And Bad Days, And It's About How You Continue To Rejoin Forces.

I Did Get Good Enough To Get On Hbo's Young Comedians Special, But I Certainly Wasn't The Person Who Got Launched Off Of Hbo's Young Comedians Special. That Would Be Ray Romano That Year. I Had Some Semi-intelligent Jokes, But When People Would See Me, They Would Think, "oh, That's A Good Writer." No One Would Ever Have Said, "oh, That's A Good Performer."

Something Economically Changed. It Used To Be That You Needed 20 Million People To Watch A Tv Show For It To Be A Hit. Now, With Just A Few Million People Watching, You're Considered Very Successful, For A Lot Of These Streaming Services, Or Cable Channels. Now, That Allows People To Do Much More Creatively Ambitious Work, Because It's Not Lowest Common Denominator.

I Was Listening To Tommy Chong Talking About How He Feels Like There Is Like A Creative Flow Happening And How Certain People Just Know How To Hook Into The Pipe. He Played Music With Jimi Hendrix And Felt That He Was Personally Connected To Some Higher Intelligence Or Creativity.

In The Writing, I'm Just Trying To Go Deeper, Emotionally, And Learn More About Myself And Reveal More And Find A Way To Connect With People In New Ways.

I'm Trying To Think If There Was Ever The Lenny Bruce-y, Observational, George Carlin Kind Of Magician: "you Know What I Hate Is ..." I Don't Think That Ever Existed.

My First Writing Jobs Were Writing Tom Arnold Specials For Hbo, So I Love Working There.

And I Like The Passion That People Have When They're Trying To Prove They Can Make A Movie Or Be A Movie Star.

People Like The Comedy More When They Care About The Characters.

I Love Coldplay. I Love Steely Dan - Steely Dan's Probably One Of My Top Three Bands Of All Time.

I Put On A Big Show When I Write Something I Think Is Funny.

I Think It's Fun To Have People See Everything At Once, And Then I Think Certain Shows Are Very Well-suited To Being On Every Week And Being Spread Out Over Months.

The First Comedians I Became Fascinated With Were The Marx Brothers. I Couldn't Get Enough Of Them. Later In Life, I Thought, "well, Maybe It's Because They Were So Rebellious And They Were Just Flipping The Bird To Society And All The Rules We're Supposed To Follow." They Were Saying That None Of It Is Fair.

If Everyone Is Mature, There Is No Comedy.

There Are People Who Like Short Movies, And I Think They Should Just Watch Our Movies On Dvd Because They Can Pause, Go To The Bathroom, Eat Dinner, And Come Back To It.

I Think Jim [carrey], In The Best Possible Way, Thought, "i Need To Do Different Things To Establish To The Audience That I'm Not Going To Do The Same Thing Every Time."

I Like Human Comedies - Or Dramedies. More Than Anything, I'm Interested In People Just Dealing With Everyday Things That Are Difficult, And There Is More Than Enough Comedy And Drama In That.

Donald Trump Runs The Country Like He Ran "the Apprentice." The Premise Of "the Apprentice" Is A Crazy Rich Guy Has His Daughter And His Son Oversee Celebrities Doing Tasks. And Then They Come Back To Him, And They Tell Him How They Did. So In Every Episode He's Like, How Did - How'd Meatloaf Do, Ivanka? And Then She Says, Meatloaf Really Did A Great Presentation. And Then He Makes Some Impulsive Decision About Who To Fire Based On Not Being There, Not Really Even Understanding Anything.

You Can Do Weird Things On Tv - There Are Happy Stories, Sad Stories, Dark Stories. But With A Movie, It Always Has To End Satisfying. Unless You're The Coen Brothers, And It Ends With Somebody Getting Shot In The Head.

I Was Very Combative As A Creative Person At That Time [while The Ben Stiller Show]. I Didn't Understand How To Play Politics With The Studios. I Didn't Know How To Creatively Collaborate With The People Who Were Paying The Bills, And That Came Up All The Time On Every Project I Was Doing, And It Took Me A Really Long Time To Figure Out How To Collaborate In A Healthy Way.

At Network Television You Could Make A Show Like Freaks And Geeks, And Even Though 7 Million People Watch Is Every Week, You Were Considered A Terrible Failure, And They Got Rid Of You And Staff. Now ... It's Like A World Where The Replacements Are The Biggest Fans In The World. It's, The Elvis Costellos Of Television Are The Winners. Creativity Is King And It's Very Very Exciting.

I Remember The Review From Michael Wilmington In Chicago, And Gene Siskel Wrote Really Smart Reviews Where I Thought, "oh, They Totally Get What We're Attempting To Do."

My Dad Was A Big Fan Of Comedy. He Wanted To Be A Stand-up. He Loved Lenny [bruce]. He Also Loved Lord Buckley And Jazz And Stuff. He Was A Hipster. My Parents Were Kind Of Beatnik-y, You Know, For Salt Lake City. But My Humor, I Think, Came From Wanting To Disarm People Before They Hit Me.

I Think There Have Been So Many Documentaries About Pop Stars, Made By Pop Stars. It's A New Phenomenon. People Making These Movies Where They Praise Themselves And Show Their Own Weaknesses. It's All Designed To Make You Love Them Even More.

I Don't Think There's That Many Great 90-minute Comedies.

If Anything Is Leaking, I Try To Plug The Hole.

I Wrote On The Grammys, And A Few Times For Garry Shandling When He Was Hosting. I Couldn't Have Enjoyed Those Gigs More, Because I Would Get To Collaborate And Try To Make People I Looked Up To Laugh, But For The Most Part, When You're As Talented As They Are, What They Really Want Is Someone Who Can Type Fast And Whose Presence Makes Them Feel In The Mood To Write And Spew And Be Creative, And I Was A Good Person To Have In The Room.

I Don't Think There's Really Observational Magic.

I Was Bad At Sports And Picked Last Every Day. I Couldn't Quite Figure Out What My Role Was In The Social Order, So I Decided I Was Interested In Comedy. And What Was Then Interesting Was, Nobody Else Was Interested In It At All. I Didn't Find One Friend Who Was Interested In Comedy Until I Moved To California And Met Other Comedians. And Suddenly I Knew Hundreds Of People Who Knew As Much About Sctv As I Did. But It Took Me 20 Years To Find Those People.

I Thought The Idea Jim [carrey] Had, Which Was To Do A Comedic Version Of Movies Like The Hand That Rocks The Cradle And Unlawful Entry, Was Really Funny. The Movie Was A Little Lighter When We First Came On, A Little More Like What About Bob? Or Something.

There's Something Honorable About Holding Out For Love And Not Breaking Up For The Sake Of The Baby. I See People Get Divorced, And There Is A Part Of Me That Thinks, I Wonder How Hard They Tried?

There Are People That Entertainment Is Something They Do At The End Of A Long Hard Day At Work, And They Want To Be Entertained And Have It Over Quickly. They're Like, "entertain Me Fast!"

I Like To Shoot Scenes Where I Can See The Beginning, Middle And End Of The Entire Scene. But, When You Edit A Movie Together, You Can Just Cut Right Into The Middle. You Don't Need To See Them Walk Into The Room And Put Their Jacket On The Chair. There's Always A Lot Of Shoe Leather That You Can Remove.

I Often Say That ... I'm Just Involved In Comedy, So I Can Be Around It.

I Don't Think It Matters What The Frequency Is Of Me Writing Or Directing A Movie. It Doesn't Really Matter To Anybody Else. I'm Just Trying To Put Good Things Out There.

[my] Dream Writers Room: "'taxi.' I Need To Write For Someone Named Judd."

Penn [jillette] And Teller And I Get Along Very Well. We Can Call Each Other And Say, "i'm Working On This Classic Effect. Please, I'd Like To Do It For A While." We'll All Respect It. There Are People We Don't Get Along With, But Mostly There Is A Respect Amongst The Group.

The Thing That Ruined Your Life Makes You Good At Your Work. And Then You Get Rewarded At Work, So You Don't Bother To Fix It In Your Life.

When You Make A Movie, You Just Send It Off Into The World. You Never Actually Live It With The Crowd.

You Should Look Up Some Of The Reviews. The New York Times Review Is So Over-the-top Funny. It's Hysterical. You Should Dig It Out.

Humor Is His Defense Mechanism, So That Would Allow Me To Talk About Some Serious Subjects, But Get A Lot Of Hilarious Jokes In.

I Hear Amy Schumer On Howard Stern, And I Think, "i Wish There Was A Movie That Starred Her, Because She's So Interesting," And Then At Some Point I Go, "i Guess I Have To Get Involved, Because It's Not Happening Right Now. Maybe I Should Help Try To Make That Happen."

I Really Think More About Being Honest And Truthful About Feelings And How People Behave For The Movies That I Direct, But I Also Love Movies Like Zohan And Anchorman, Just Balls To The Wall, How Much Can You Make People Laugh In One 90 Minute Period.

Some People Make Movies And Think, "well, I'll Just Keep Asking For More Money If This Isn't Enough." And Then There Are Other People, Like Clint Eastwood, Who Always Come In Under Budget.

I'm Always Surprised When You Do Something Very Different That People Don't Get Behind You More, Because You're Always Told, "take Chances! Stretch!" And When You Do It, Sometimes People Get Really Supportive And Excited, But Sometimes People Go At You Because You've Tossed Out The Formula.

I Start Casting Early In The Writing Process, So I Can Tailor The Script To The Gifts Of The Actors.

I Very Rarely Made Any Move To Direct Anything. I Didn't Have Any Faith In Myself.

When Jim Carrey Signed On To Star In [the Cable Guy], And Then They Asked Me To Produce It, I Made A Very Brief Plea To Direct - Which Was Rejected Really As Quickly As Anything Can Be.

I've Come To Realize That People Connect More When They Know You're Telling Them The Truth Or Some Aspect Of Your Story, Some Mutated Version Of How You Are Experiencing This Life.

Most People Are Really Fighting To Not Be Adults. And, When It Happens, It's A Big Transition. And A Lot Of That Is Just Awful. It's Awful To Have To Get A Job And Really Be Responsible For Other People. And It Is Funny, Too. Like, We're All Kind Of Little Idiot Kids Trying To Act Like We Know What We Are Doing.

If You Make A Bad Movie About Stand-up, Then Comedians Will Mock You For The Rest Of Your Life.

Rest Of Your Life

My Way Of Dealing With The World Has Always Been To Make Fun Of It And Observe It But Not Take Part In It.that's How I Became A Writer. But When You Have Kids, Suddenly You Have To Be Part Of Things. It Leads Almost To A Breakdown Because Your Whole Defense Mechanism Is Now Really Destructive.

Sometimes You Need To Get Away For A Few Weeks Just To Figure Out Who You Are Again.

College Is The Reward For Surviving High School. Most People Have Great Fun Stories From College And Nightmare Stories From High School.

I Have A Four-and-a-half-year-old And, When She Was Two And A Half, She Would Make My Wife And I Do Voices, Like Woody And Jessie The Cowgirl, Or Elmo, Or Yogi Bear And Booboo. If We Didn't Do It, She Would Scream At Us. So, My Wife And I Would Have Adult Conversations As Yogi Bear And Booboo. It Was Just A Nightmare Year.

Sometimes, Something Seems Dead, And Then Out Of The Blue, Someone Just Figures Out The Way To Fix A Script And It Goes.

I've Come To Believe That The Simpler The Title, The Better. Whenever I Try To Get Cute With It, It Seems To Be A Problem But If It's Just The 40-year-old Virgin, People Seem To Know What They're In For.

It's So Funny, All The Similarities That We Have [with David Copperfield] Of Being Obsessed Young People And Finding A Way To Be Around The People Doing What We Want To Do.

I Don't Really Get Attached To Anything. I'm Pretty Brutal About Cutting Stuff. With Each Successful Movie, I've Discovered Anything That's Not Connected To The Immediate Story Is Going To Be Cut Out Of It.

When I Was Very Young, I Started To Make Friends With Much, Much Older People. So When I Was Twenty, My Friends Were Fifty, And I Never Really Went Through Forty Because I Would Watch Them Die And I Would Feel Younger. So You Make Friends With Older People And You Will Always Feel Young No Matter What.

In Terms Of The Emotional Underpinning, If You've Been In Relationships, You Understand What's Happening.

I Don't Think I'm Going To Get So Mature That I Lose Touch With The Whatever Wounded Part Of Myself That Feels The Need To Be Funny. I'm Already Old Enough That I Realize That's Not Going To Happen.

The Moment You Think Of A Joke Is The Best Moment.

I'm Making A Movie About Relationships, And I'm Surrounded By Guys Scared Of Talking To Girls.

Just Trying To Tell The Truth About, You Know, The Struggle Of - Being Alive Is Funny, It's Just Inherently Tragic And Also Hilarious - In A Fun Way And In A Sad Way. That Seems To Connect With People.

It's Funny When People Debate About Music, Because They Get So Passionate About What They Enjoy.

I Always Felt As A Kid That I Was Underappreciated, Invisible Or Weird, But I've Always Secretly Thought People Would One Day Appreciate What Is Different About Me. I'm Always Putting That Message Out There.

I Always Feel Like I'm Very Far From My Potential.

I Literally Cannot Remember One Joke.

As A Jewish Man Who Has No Interest In Judaism Whatsoever, There's Something In Me That Says When Bad Things Have Happened In The Past, People Were Supposed To Get More Active And Speak Up And Prevent Them. That's What's Important To Me Is That Everybody - And I Don't Care What Side You're On. You Can Disagree With Me, But Everyone Better Get Active. Everybody Better Vote And Be Thoughtful.

I Wanted To See How Funny I Could Be Without Making The Choice That Every 10 Minutes Something Big And Visual Had To Happen.

Every Day I Live By Only One Rule, Be A Good Guy.

I Think We All Have A Love/hate Relationship With The Media.

I Test The Movies A Lot, And If The Audience Says They Love The Movie, We Know We're On The Right Track. And If They Tell Me They Hate It, I Try To Figure Out What I've Done Wrong. But Every Time Out, The Audience Wants Me To Go Deeper, They Want To Know More About The Characters, And They Don't Want These Movies To Be Shallow. So They Really Urge Me To Tell Them A Complicated Story, And Then When I Do So, They're Thrilled

Back Then, You Seemed Like A Crazy Person When You Were Trying To Push The Boundaries Of Network Tv. People Looked At You, And They Were Offended By The Fact That You Didn't Follow The Generic Rules Of What Was Expected On Network Tv.

I Always See Other People As Predecessors And Admire Them.

Eventually, The Nerds And The Geeks Will Have Their Day.

If A Woman Says, I Love Myself; I Love My Body; I'm Comfortable With My Life, Comfortable With My Mistakes, And I Deserve A Seat At Every Table And Everything Should Be Completely Equal, There Are Guys Who Lose Their Minds.

I've Had Movies Bomb With Terrible Reviews, I've Had Movies Make A Lot Of Money With Terrible Reviews, I've Had Movies Get Good Reviews And Make Money. And I Like It Best When The Movies Do Well And The Reviewers Like Them.

I Love Magazines And Film Critics, So I Eat It Up. I'm Not One Of Those People Who Says 'i Never Read Anything.' I Generally Read All Of It.

I Just Try To Be True To Myself And Write About Things I'm Passionate About. I Think What Most People Don't Like About Movies Is They Can Tell That Most Movies Are A Product, And They Don't Mean That Much To The People Who Make Them.

Literally, My Last Call Was With David Blaine, Congratulating Him On His Show. I Have A Camaraderie With David.

I Like To Make Movies The Way People Made Movies In The '70s, Where They Lived And Died With These Stories, And Cared About Them, And Went To War For Them, And They All Said Something They Wanted To Say.

I'm Always Begging People Like James Brooks And Cameron Crowe To Come To Screenings, To See What They Make Of It, And They're Always Ridiculously Helpful. They Also Keep Me Brave Enough To Commit To What I'm Trying To Do. They Can Be Great Cheerleaders For Risk-taking.

I Think That Everything I Do Tends To Root For The Underdog.

I Wrote For Roseanne. I Wrote Her Stand-up Act With Her. I Wrote With Tom Arnold. There Was A Period When I Was Working With Them Pretty Steadily. But I Would Take Brief Gigs Here And There.

The Only Thing Worse Than A Crappy Tv Show Which Paddy Chayevsky Couldn't Have Conceived In His Worst Nightmare Is Two Megacorps Fighting Over Who Thought Of The Crappy Show First.

When The Entire Country Was Watching One Show There Was A Major Discussion Happening; Is It Possible For That To Happen In A 1 Million Channel Universe?

I Think, There Were Probably Problems With Show Business Where Producers And Directors Would Try To Get The Writing Credit Also. So They Created A Rule Where The Bar, To Get Your Name Added To The Writing Credits, If You've Done A Revision, Is Very High If You're Also The Producer Or Director.

I Think The World Is Changing And All That Matters Is That I'm Creating Things.

I Used To Tour A Little Bit With Jim Carrey And Help Him Out On His First Showtime Special.

I Don't Want To Be Ordinary. I'm Willing To Do The Work. I'm Willing To Suffer The Indignities Of Comedy Because I Want To Be Great. I Don't Want To Just Be Good. I Want To Be Great.

I Remember Before I Did My Hbo Special, Chris [rock] Screamed At Me - In A Loving Way, But Still. He Was Like, "you Need To Do 200 Shows In A Row And A Month Straight On The Road Before You Even Think About Recording A Special!" And I Had Literally Booked Two Weeks On The Road And Then Went Right Into The Recording. It Put Me In A Panic, But It Also Made Me Work Harder And Made Me Realize That Everyone Works Differently, And That's Okay.

With Comedy, A Lot Of People Develop Their Sense Of Humor As A Defense Mechanism.

Most People In The World Of Comedy At Least Are Multi-hyphenates, So People Who Direct Are Also Writers.

People Talk About Universal Intelligence ... I'm Reticent To Believe Almost Anything, Just Because My Parents Weren't Religious At All, But That's When I Feel It. People Talk About Being In The "flow."

Maybe You Just Get So Attached To The Music Of Your Youth That You Think It's Better Than What's Coming Out Now.

I Think People Like Lena Dunham Really Opened Up The Door To What Was Possible, And They've Inspired Young Women To Go Into Filmmaking And Writing And Directing And Acting In A Way That Maybe They Didn't Before, Because Now There Is A Path And There Are Jobs.

If You Develop 10 Things, And You Can Get Two Or Three Made, That's A Very High Ration.

When You're Making Your 20th Movie, It Might Be The 20th Most Incredible Thing That's Ever Happened To You!

I Used To Watch 10 Hours Of Television A Night, My Entire Childhood. And I Don't Think It Did All Good Things To Me. I Certainly Still Have Social Problems That Are A Result Of Being In My Room Alone Too Much.

I Worshipped Guys Like Bill Maher, Jay Leno, And Jerry Seinfeld, And Was Doing My Variation Of That. But As A Young Person With No Political Point Of View Or Life Experience, It Was As Funny As You Can Imagine.

If The Movie's Not Communicating, It's Not Working.

Right When I Started Getting Solid Was When I Was Offered A Lot Of Writing Work. And When The Ben Stiller Show Was Picked Up, I Realized There Was No Way For Me To Do Stand-up Three Or Four Nights A Week And Run This Television Show With Ben. So That Was The Moment When I Had To Make A Choice.

The Audience Doesn't Care That Most Of Happened. They Just Want A Good Movie.

For A Long Time, Tv Was Just The Land Of Handsome, Beautiful People, And Now It's The Opposite.

Sometimes A Story Idea Will Come To Me, And Suddenly I've Figured Out The Whole Thing, And I Feel Like I'm Collaborating With Something Other Than Myself.

Even Now If I See Someone Working Out, In Great Shape, Like A 40-year-old Guy With His Shirt Off Jogging I Always Think, "look At That Idiot." That's Why Everyone In My Movie Is Kind Of Goofy Because I'm A Champion Of The Goofball. What Sucks Is I Have To Work Out Now Not To Die. I Was Always Happy Not Working Out Because I Never Wanted To Be Someone Who Worked Out To Look Good, But Now I Have To Try To Not Die, Which Is Such A Drag.

I Need To Find People Who I Respect So I Can Respect Them, And They'll Like Being Respected So They'll Respect Me, And That's Like A Marriage.

In My Beginnings, Those Nos Were Ever-present-even Today, Those Nos Are Ever-present-and It's The Workaround. I Always Found A Workaround For People Who Turned Their Back To Me. It's A Way Of Being Persistent That Makes Them Take Notice.

I Used To Bug All Of The Comedians For Interviews, And When People Want To Talk To Me, Sometimes I'm Very Receptive And Sometimes I Say No. Sometimes If I Say No, I Think, "if They're Smart, They'll Figure Out How To Not Accept This No."

You Hear People Say: "one Day, When I'm In A Good Position I Can Make My Passion Project." I've Seen A Lot Of People Get Into That Position And Not Make It.

The Hard Part About Getting Much Attention Is That People Start Dissecting What You Do.

Every Time I'm In Editing, There's Always A Moment Where You Think, "maybe This Should Be Six Or Seven Minutes Shorter, But I'm Losing Character And Story That I Think Is Important." When I Like Things, I'm Not In A Rush For Them To End.

I Think Watching Too Much Tv As A Kid Led Me To Being Very Uncomfortable In New Situations. To This Day, When I Drop My Kids Off At School, I Still Feel Like I'm In 9th Grade And I'm Uncomfortable And Insecure. Like Anyone Is Paying Any Attention.

In My Work, There Is A Lot Of Storytelling. The Storytelling Is Not A New Thing. Back In The [howard] Thurston Days, The [harry] Houdini Days, The [harry] Blackstone Days, It Was Stories, But The Stories Were, "we're Going To The Egyptian Temples, And We're Going To Vanish The Prince Of Thebes," And, "on My Last Trip To The Orient ..."

I Remember The Time Review [on The Hit And Run]said That There Wasn't One Laugh In It. And I Had Watched The Movie 50 Times With Audiences, And It Always Played Great. There Was Certainly A Moment Where You Could Tell The Audience Was Like, "wow, This Is Really Getting Weird."

I Still Feel Like A Weird Kid Who Is About To Take A Punch In The Face. So, I Think It's Permanent.

I Think My Instinct Creatively Is To Make Things That Are Very Funny And Happy And Silly. And In This Moment Where The World Is Very Scary, I Feel Like My Role Is To Make People Laugh Really Hard.

You Have To Write A Lot Of Scripts To Get Any Scripts That Are Worth Making.

I Feel The Responsibility To Make Things Which On Some Level Have Something Positive To Say.

When I Notice That All The Beats Sound Exactly The Same, It Starts To Wear On Me.

It Seems Like Magic Is Something Kids Start Really Young.

I Try To Just Save A Fresh, Clear Head For Whoever I'm Working With, So Hopefully It's Helpful That There's Someone Who Doesn't Have To Sit In The Editing Room For 12 Hours A Day, And Who's Blinded By The Massive Footage And Options That They Have.

I Started A Radio Show Where I Interviewed Comics. And I Interviewed Leno And Seinfeld And John Candy And Father Guido Sarducci And Garry Shandling, All When I Was 16. And They Kind Of Told Me What To Do.

There's Nothing More Fun Than Debating And Defending Your Taste In Music.

I Get The Most Starstruck Around Musicians. I Get Tongue-tied And Don't Know What To Say. I'm So Jealous Of Them. When You Make A Movie, You're Constructing Something - It's A Little Bit Like Making An Album. But After Musicians Make An Album, They Get To Perform It Live And Experience It In Front Of A Crowd.

There Are Only So Many Hilarious Actors So When They Cross-pollinate, People Assume It's Always The Same Actors And Directors.

For Me, Until I Know That The Audience Really Gets What I'm Trying To Communicate I'm Not Done.

I've Made Movies On Every Part Of The Spectrum, And You Do Understand When You Go Into Certain Movies That You're Trying To Elicit A Certain Kind Of Response From The Audience, And People Get A Real Sense Of Satisfaction When They're Rooting For A Character And The Character Pulls It Off.

I Always Thought That Seth [rogen] Was A Fun, Caustic, Bombastic, Sweet, Underdog-type Of Person That I Would Root For The Way You Used To Root For Bill Murray Or John Candy In "stripes." Seth Had Something That Very Few People You Encounter Have: He Had A Writer's Mind And He Had His Own Comic Point Of View.

All Of My Jokes Were About Not Being Able To Meet Anybody. I Didn't Have Any Insight Into Anything - Even My Own Insecurities.

I Bring People On To The Movies To Type And To Help Punch Up And Look At Things. But A Lot Of It Is, You Want Fun People To Be Around, To Put You In A Good Mood, To Try And Access Your Creative Place.

So Many People Are In Comedy Because Of Difficult Mothers Or Broken Homes.

I've Always Appreciated People Like Graham Parker Or Loudon Wainwright Iii, Who Spend Their Entire Lives Writing Songs And Working Their Asses Off Just To Have Complete Artistic Freedom. They're Just Sharing Their Lives With You Through Their Music. That's The Same Kind Of Work That I'm Trying To Do, In My Own Weird Way.

Most Comedians Weren't Great Athletes; That Was The Way They Got Noticed In High School.

'the Night Of.' I Pray There Will Be More.

I Don't Think Because A Story Has Humor In It Means It's Brief. For Some Reason, People Think Anything That's 30 Minutes Is A Comedy, Comedies Can Be Longer Or Shorter, So Can Dramas.

The Great Thing About Eminem Is, He's Just Hysterical. You Forget, People Like Eminem Because He Is Riotously Funny. And He's A Great Actor.

I Start Thinking About The Next Movie Before It's A Success, So I Can Never Have One Moment Of Happiness Or Peace. I'm Instantly Thinking About The Next One.

It Was Always The Most Fun Thing In The World To Think Of A Joke Area And Talk About It With Someone Like Jim Carrey, And Then He Would Get On Stage Fearlessly And Tear The House Down. That's Something I Always Enjoyed. It Also Allowed Me To Not Be Terrified.

It's A Pretty Humiliating Thing When You Get Picked Last Every Day In Gym Class And Then At Lunchtime All The Kids Play Sports And You Get Picked Last. At The Time I Just Thought, "this Is Awful," Because It Defines You As A Weak Person. It Defines You With Girls And If You're Bad At Sports, You Get Into This Funny Cycle Where The Ball Never Gets To You Because Now You're In The Worst Position, You're In Deep Right Field, So You Can Never Prove That You Got Better, So The Cycle Lasts Forever.

If You're An Athlete, You Might Work Your Entire Life, And You Win The Super Bowl Once, If You're Lucky. And I Feel Like In The Arts And Entertainment We Win The Super Bowl All The Time.

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