Norman Lear Quotes

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 like to spoof the original Gothic classics, so there is also good dose of comedy in the 'Parasol Protectorate' - giggling readers are good.

A lot of my humor centers on the act of telling jokes and I think this can prevent certain audiences from suspending their feeling of disbelief. It might piss a few people off, but I can't help it.

If you play it straight it's funny - the best comedy is always played straight down the middle. The adjustment is understanding from the screenplay that a moment is hilarious.

The comics that are just conversing with you up there and drawing on their own life, yeah, I guess so. I guess some do political humor, some do topical humor, but the ones that I like, the ones that are appealing to me, were guys who were just talking to you about their life.

It's very hard to write humor.

Let's face it, the great comedians now that are handicapped in the looks department are tremendous writers.

You know, funny can be universal.

When I was younger, I listened to the greats: Winters, Mel and Carl, Nichols and May, Pryor, Carlin, Klein, Berman and lots of Lenny Bruce albums. But once I started doing fairly well, I didn't want to hear anybody's jokes or premises.

There's an art to stupid comedy. There's an art to offensive comedy, and I think the key is it's just gotta make you laugh.

Humor writing is something that comes naturally to me.

I'll accept bad taste in a minute, as long as there's some great comedy minds and performances.

The real problem you get with humour is that you only have so many kinds of jokes within you, and you mine that vein a lot. This isn't just common to me; it's anybody who's funny.

Plus, I love comic writing. Nothing satisfies me more than finding a funny way to phrase something.

Nobody enjoys the 'little show about nothing' humor more than me, but that is never the way I look at it.

There's always a message in my comedy.

There is a universality to comedy.

Now the point of comedy is not just looking funny, it's use of language. We have at our disposal a great language... and the imaginative, creative use of that language can be at the service of humour.

I can't not write funny. It's literally the only way I know how to do it.

I think one of the big things about comedy is the ability for the audience to identify.

Being a comedy writer gives you permission to be an outsider and poke fun at what people think about other people.

I've always been very upfront about the way I write, and I've always used the tools humorists use, such as exaggeration.

David Letterman used to say, 'I wasn't the class clown, but I wrote for him,' and that's exactly it. You want to be known to be funny without having it pointed out.

So my humor, I'd say, comes from a mixture of lowbrow comedy shows and highbrow theater. It's an interesting mix.

I think so. I can't think of anything that requires more finesse than comedy, both from a verbal and visual point of view.