It’s the biggest party in the world, and you have to keep the whole thing percolating, which is difficult because a lot of awards most people don’t care about.

What makes me laugh? Richard Nixon always made me laugh.

Eddie Izzard is absolutely brilliant. I would love to write something for him.

Generally with the Oscars or the Emmys there isn’t much you can do until the nominations are announced. Then you know what kind of year you’re dealing with – what’s been overlooked, what the issues...

I do a lot of screen re-writing.

I mean, I’ve sold all these scripts and nothing’s been made. Studios have closed, stars have died. I had a director find Jesus. And the pictures just don’t get made.

I mean, when I started out I was billing per hour, like a shrink because you would sit with somebody and work. But most of it, if it’s for a live show it’s usually a...

I write screenplays that don’t get made and pilots that don’t get picked up, and I re-write other people’s movies, and those are all different kinds of fees.

It is something I’m still sticking to. I’m still working out, and I’m still on Zone food. I’m still losing weight.

I’ve never had to write a spec script.

They want to have a big movie star in that role. I’m sure a lot of other people were considered. He wouldn’t be anybody’s first thought. People forget that he has musical-comedy chops. He comes...

I’ve written about 15 screenplays and they all sold – they were all sold on pitches.

It’s over. Once you see they’ve got a list, people have already stopped listening.

Sometimes there are people you can’t make jokes about because the situation is embarrassing, especially if they’re going to be there. It’s just cruel.

It’s really live television, the way God meant it to be.

They make a humongous profit, but the people that work on the shows don’t get paid a lot because they’re working on the Oscars show. It’s the biggest show in the world.