For me, most comedy scripts fail in the mechanical playing-out of the setup. They'll pay lip service to a moral lesson or a psychological progression..

The comic impulse is sometimes a reaction to sadness. You feel like you can make one choice or the other..

When you're young and you first see the extent and depth of the world's hypocrisy, it's fun to go after it. But by the time you're sixty, it's so com….

Most comedy is not very ambitious. You probably can't name more than a handful of comedies that would qualify for Best Picture..

When a director writes, there's a compulsory arbitration. You have a right to challenge any of the arbitrators, but they pick three of four arbitrato….

Comedy is essentially made by young men, or older men with some form of arrested development, for young men or immature older men..

Stand-up is every man for himself; you learn from hanging out at these clubs and watching other guys, and then trying not to be like them..

I believe things happen that can't be explained, but so many people seem intent on explaining them. Everyone has an answer for them. Either aliens or….

The first comedy screenplay that I wrote was Animal House and I always thought I could and should be a director but no one was about to give me that ….

I look for the meaning in what's funny, and I look for what's funny about things that are meaningful to me..

I collect spores, molds, and fungus..

We are all several different people. There are different aspects of our nature that are competing..

I've been directing for 25 years almost, and I've only directed nine films in that time because I like to be careful..

My job is to come up with something that you like and you agree with that you would play wholeheartedly. If we disagree, I may not be doing my job co….

We tell our kids that policemen are good and God protects us and our country is noble, and at a certain point - and for some it comes quite early, fi….

I made a handshake agreement with my best friend in college, Michael Shamberg, who is now a movie producer. We used to write shows together, and we s….

I used to be married to a woman who pursued every spiritual trend with tremendous passion and dragged me along. I don't believe in anything. I'd seen….

Ive never been a big believer in ghosts or the spirit world, and for me, that was part of the point of the movie, ... What the Ghostbusters represent….

I'm a writer-director-actor, which I've always kind of enjoyed. I compared it to the Olympic biathlon. "Not only can he cross-country ski, but he's a….

I've never taken a script to the stage or to principal photography and said, "This is perfect. This is as good as it can possibly be." It's not Shake….

With both Caddyshack and Vacation, it's not like the subjects were serious enough that they engaged my interest for another round. I love the charact….