I am interested in the notion that people can become so obsessed by their world that they lose sense and awareness of how they appear to other people. They're so earnest about it. But that's true of so many things.

I am interested in the notion that people can become so obsessed by their world that they lose sense and awareness of how they appear to other people. They're so earnest about it. But that's true of so many things.

'The Office' is an amazing show. So is 'Extras.'

All these movies are observational comedies. I see somebody, maybe a dry cleaner, and notice how they are. Maybe I'll decide to turn a person with those traits into a studio chief.

Comedies don't get nominated for Oscars. It doesn't happen. So when we set out to do a movie, it's not what we're thinking about.

Comedy is like music. You have to know the key and you have to find players with good chops.

Folk musicians have a lot of the same self-importance, but they're way more cruel and jealous than rock musicians - I know this for a fact because I used to be a folk musician.

I didn't go to film school. I had been an actor in movies, I had been in plays, and then I just sort of jumped into it.

I don't know anyone who's ever taken a bus. It's a mysterious form of transportation.

I don't know if I'd mastered that documentary format, but I wanted to move on from it.

I don't read anything about my movies before or after I do films, or any part of show business. I think that keeps me in a kind of place where I can do the work that I need to do.

I don't think we've ever known what the hell's going on when we do Tap shows. It's possible the audience are effectively getting to see more of the movie when we play. You know, they know the songs, so anything we do onstage, whether we're meaning to or not, is an extension of the film. Other than that, I wouldn't understand what's going on.

I find it really appalling when people talk about comedy.

I get asked, 'Who would you really like to work with?' I'm already working with them. Smart, talented, funny people, good musicians, an extended family, good friends.

I haven't had to do anything outside of show business my whole life. I've never been a waiter. I've only worked and gotten paid. It hasn't been a classic example of someone slogging through the business.

I like to play music, and I like to be funny, so I just do both at the same time.

I love being with my family and just being a regular person.

I love documentaries. My problem is when the filmmaker becomes the star.

I painted sets before I ever performed.

I rarely joke unless I'm in front of a camera. It's not what I am in real life. It's what I do for a living.

I read kind of serious books about fairly arcane subjects.

I spent a lot of time in London when I was growing up and I've always picked up accents without even really meaning to. It used to get me into trouble as a child.

I spent more time in America, but I developed a very English sense of humour. I clicked into it deeply with Peter Sellers, who is still probably my favourite comedian.

I started on the clarinet. I was going to a music school - my mother took me - and the guy said, 'What do you want to play?' I said the drums, and my mother said, 'No, you don't. You don't want to play the drums.' So I said, 'Maybe the trumpet would be cool.' And my mother said, 'I don't think so.' And then the clarinet was handed to me.

I started working in New York City as an actor and did many plays. I did regional theater, smaller theaters, children's theater.

I was never in an improv group. But when I went to school, we would do it all day long with friends, not knowing what it was called.

I watch mostly documentaries and things that aren't remotely funny.

I went to Bard College for a year. And then, even though I didn't think I should give my blood to the theater, I did go to N.Y.U., which is where I met Michael McKean.

I would make a huge distinction between theater improvisation and film improvisation.

I would overhear these conversations of people who show purebred dogs. They spoke about them as if they were their children.

I wouldn't say I'm a connoisseur of film. I like certain films, but I don't pretend to be a connoisseur of films, no.

I'm fascinated by real-time behavior.

I'm married to the person I fell in love with.

I'm not really premeditative in any way at all. I come up with an idea, hopefully for a film, and then I'm lucky enough to do the film.

I've been buying guitars since 1964, and you fool yourself into thinking it's the last one.

I've been fortunate. I get to write films. I get to write music in films. I get to play arenas wearing a wig.

I've never seen a reality show. I don't watch television.

If you didn't know who I was, if I was to walk out on the street without people knowing who I am, you'd think I'm an accountant or a lawyer.

If you don't like the people, you're just doing a sketch. Which, in most cases, is comedy minus some emotional backbone.

If you're deluded, you live in a place where there isn't everyone else's reality.

If you're showing people where it's smooth sailing, where is the joke? If you go back to any movie, even a conventional movie, with any comedians, they're either not terribly intelligent or they're not doing something well.

In 'Spinal Tap,' there's the fake historical quality of 'Stonehenge.' It's something the musicians look at with a mystical reverence. In folk music, it's the seriousness with which these people approach their 'art.'

In real life, people fumble their words. They repeat themselves and stare blankly off into space and don't listen properly to what other people are saying. I find that kind of speech fascinating but screenwriters never write dialogue like that because it doesn't look good on the page.

In the kind of films that I do, there is an extremely limited number of people that can improvise. The reason the ensemble continues in the movies is because those are the people that can do that kind of work. It's not just an accident those people are in the film.

It couldn't have been more nerdy or bizarre, playing the clarinet. But I studied classical clarinet, went to the high school for music and art in New York City, and then found the guitar and the mandolin after it.

It's dangerous talking about comedy; it gets to be very tedious and presumptuous.

It's difficult to articulate how I know it's the right actor, but I do. It's instinct. Intuition.

It's infrequent that that happens - great performances and magical cinematography and great direction.

Many times I'll improvise it, which isn't done a lot in movies or commercials. But a lot of my commercials are improvised.