NELL SCOVELL

One of the greatest benefits to come out of 'Lean In' was convincing women to help and support other women - not out of this sense of duty and that you'd be condemned to hell forever if you didn't, but because it will make all your lives better.

Making someone laugh is the simplest, most basic positive human connection.

Sometimes, not knowing what you're doing allows you to do things you never knew you could do.

Writing is not what you start. It's not even what you finish. It's what you start, finish, and put out there for the world to see.

When threatened, the nervous system sometimes goes into a 'freeze response.' You assess the risk and determine that fight or flight doesn't help you. Staying put does.

When blue-eyed Donald Trump married hazel-eyed Ivana Zelnickova, he probably figured his broad-shouldered DNA would dominate her girly alleles. But genetics played a cruel trick on Trump: Of the couple's three children, only the youngest, Eric, wound up with his father's fishy blue eyes.

Constant exercise can keep the body trim and taut, but the face is another thing.

Arts are a luxury, proof that a civilization has risen above 'politics and war.'

The more successful you are as a man, the more you're liked. And the more successful you are as a woman, the more you're disliked.

People say, 'Dress for the job you want,' and since I wanted a job that guys had, I dressed like a guy.

In the writers' room, I know the difference when someone brushes up against me and makes a sexist crack and when they've stepped over the line and made me feel uncomfortable and unsafe.

An ocean of ink - real and virtual - has been spilled critiquing the appearance of female politicians.

The average career span for a TV writer is 11 years. The only other thing I could find that had the same career span was a police dog.

I fantasize about the networks making a rule that each show's writing staff needs to reflect the gender and racial makeup of its audience.

I traveled to Israel in a small party assembled by Marty Peretz, the editor-in-chief of 'The New Republic.' Other guests included Senator Al Gore and his wife, Tipper. Like every tourist group, we climbed Masada, floated in the Dead Sea, and visited a kibbutz.

Everyone - male and female - is biased. But no one wants to admit it, so our brains search for examples that disprove the accusation.

An executive producer with an all-male writing staff once inadvertently revealed his deep, dark fear. While discussing a full-time position for me, he mused out loud, 'I wonder if having a woman in the room will change everything.' Of course, what he really meant was: 'I wonder if having a woman in the room will change me.'

I was the second female writer ever hired at 'Late Night.' When I applied for the job in 1988, I had no way of knowing how much the odds were stacked against me.

I learned not to get too happy about good news or too distraught about bad.

You don't have to let a bad experience stop you from doing what you want to do.

Together, we must all remember that one of the most effective responses to hate speech is more speech.

There have always been women who were successful against the odds. Now we need to change the odds so more women can be successful.

One of the great things about being in entertainment is you have access to the media. People pay attention to you.

I think empathy is undervalued in a lot of these comedy writers' rooms.

Feminists cried, 'Sexism!' when New York Senator Hillary Clinton was judged not by the content of her character but by the color of her pantsuits.