I'm a New Yorker, and I live in the country.
It wasn't as if I was simply some guy who had never seen the other side of the tracks.
It was pretty clear that I was a funny guy, just as a guy.
Comparing 'Christmas Vacation' to 'It's A Wonderful Life' is the silliest thing. That film starred the greatest movie actor of all time, and the idea that our movie could ever be connected in some fashion to something so brilliant and beautiful always made feel like, 'That's all they had to write about?'
If what you do in life is perform to open up eyes and minds, to make people laugh, then it better damn well be new! It shouldn't be just a repetitious 'Hey, I'm still here!'
Fame is a very unnatural human condition.
There was a whole slew of 'Cops and Robbersons,' just films that didn't measure up, that didn't stand for anything comedically. They were purely for a paycheck.
When I saw 'Caddyshack,' I realized I couldn't act.
It's not like I am working with the great innovators of all time, but at the same time, they are my friends.
Who made me laugh when I was growing was Chaplin and the Marx Brothers, and then moving on, there were so many that I was a writer for for many years: I was a writer for the Smothers Brothers, Lily Tomlin, then I started on 'Saturday Night Live' as the head writer the first year we started it.
I did very well when I was younger, and I am fine.
I prefer movies because the money is better and certainly because you really know where you stand when you are making movies, and I have made a lot of them: 50-something - I don't know.
Yes, I've seen Louis CK. I wouldn't in any way make a degrading remark about Louis CK, but the question is do I think anyone is funny? And the answer is not too many people. He might fit right in there.
If you get 'hot,' everyone's nice to you.
Chaplin was my idol. I remember watching those movies at this little theater in Woodstock, N.Y., when I was probably 6 and laughing so hard at the surprises, like Keaton suddenly being dragged by a streetcar.
Be Funny. Be naturally funny. If you're not, get out of the business. Be compassionate.
I've usually had two styles: the Fletch character and the Clark Griswold character.
'Weekend Update' can be presented as a full 20-minute sketch, and there's a lot of room there.
I did comedy and parody television in the '70s. I was a liberal Democrat, and it was a very heady year.
The idea of trying to write sketches the same way we did on Saturday Night Live every day would be damn near impossible.
