What was funny if you were there is that we were all immensely sophisticated people who knew exactly what she was going to say and we're chatting away nice to see you.

I would love to play 'Funny Girl' or 'Evita ' but I idolize the women who have played those parts. I don't know if there needs to be another version of those shows.

Mmmm... the comedy that matters is the comedy you pull out of thin air. It's a bit like when something funny has happened and you try to explain it to someone else and end up saying 'You had to be there.'

I have funny bones. If there's ever any kind of tension I'll always be the one to try and be funny to loosen things up.

I think the Cold War works as a great analogy or simile for different kinds of conflict. It's funny when you look back at it it's one of the last times that the boundaries were clear. Now as we see on 'Homeland ' there are no clear boundaries and enemies.

I do find comedy difficult. I don't know why. Maybe I think about it too much. There's a tremendous amount of pressure to be funny.

I think there's something in the fact that it's hard to be good looking and funny. You have to have an oddball quality people have to sympathise with you to find you funny.

I think I would say 'The King's Speech' is surprisingly funny in fact the audiences in London Toronto LA New York commented there's more laughter in this film than in most comedies while it is also a moving tear-jerker with an uplifting ending.

You know how it is with writing. You just write what you want to write. There's no way to predict what is good or bad. You just do what you think is funny and either it works or you're finished. It's impossible to predict anything.

I love Charlie Billy Burke's character. Writing for him is so spectacular he's so funny and wry and every scene he's in he just takes. There's a scene in 'Eclipse' where Bella tells him she's a virgin and it's the funniest most awkward scene I've ever seen on film.

Who knew Rob Lowe was funny? On 'Parks and Rec ' we've got some of the funniest comedy writers some of the funniest comedians in the world working there. And if anything we don't just effuse to one another and be like 'Oh Rob Lowe's really funny ' if he wasn't.

If it's inappropriate to write about if there's nothing funny about it then it's not funny.

'Funny People' is my favorite performance of myself to date. Even though it's a comedy and there are serious moments I really felt like Leo felt like a real person. It didn't feel like I was playing myself. Whether it's a comedy or drama I just try to make it as realistic as possible.

There's always something funny about men chasing women.

Also in a funny way if you have been happily married there are no unresolved areas nothing to prove to yourself after the other dies.

I had seen movies before that that had made me laugh but I had never seen anything even remotely close to as funny as Richard Pryor was just standing there talking.

Oh all the time when Victoria Wood and I did our series. There were people asking 'Can women be funny?' People still ask that. It's like asking: 'Can women breathe in and out?'