Comedy has to be done en clair. You can’t blunt the edge of wit or the point of satire with obscurity. Try to imagine a famous witty saying that is not immediately clear.

Comedy should never be over-analysed. It's either funny or it isn't. There's a subtle difference between those who say funny things and those who say things funny.

Comedy is a lot harder to do if you don’t go to the mean place. The cheapest laugh you can get is an insult or snarky comment, so if you take that off the table you have to write smarter.

Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious

Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.

Great comedy is great comedy only if it has an element of truth in it.

Satire to be good must be unfair and single-minded. To be backed by intense anger is good — though absolutely not necessary.

Comedy is quite different to anything else – the most important thing is getting a laugh, and it’s a technical skill. You can easily kill a laugh by coming in too soon or with a different expression, so in a way it’s much harder work than drama, because with drama you just get into the script and that’s it! And the more you’re into the script, the more convincing you’ll be.

Well, I mean, if a joke or humor is bawdy, it's got to be funny enough to warrant it. You can't just have it bawdy or dirty just for the sake of being that — it's got to be funny.

I always believe that funny is serious and serious is funny. You don’t really need a distinction between them. If I’m doing something on stage and it evokes an emotion, then I might show that emotion, but I also don’t believe in being a preacher. If you have a point, that’s a bonus. But the funny has to come first, otherwise you shouldn’t call yourself a comedian.

Comedy is the art of telling forbidden truths, without getting beat up.

Comedy is the art of making people laugh without making them puke.

To be comic is merely to be playful, but wit is a serious matter. To laugh at it is to confess that you do not understand.

When writing for other comedians, someone once told me, “I want to make it my own.” I’d say, “Look, the jokes are written. The relationships are written. First, do it as written. Later you can make it your own.” A lot of people don’t realize that without a valley, there is no peak. Without information, there is no joke. You’ve got to set things up.