I've Always Had That Overweening Desire To

As An Actor, You're Completely At The Mercy Of Other People. You Basically Go Begging For The Opportunity To Work. As A Writer, At Least Nobody Can Tell Me What To Do. I Can Write What I Want. I Might Not Sell It, But At Least I'm In Control.

I Did A Comedy With Al Franken About His Character Stuart Smalley, Which Was Really About Alcoholism And Addiction And Codependency. It Had Some Painful Stuff In It. When We Showed It To Focus Groups, Some Of Them Actually Said, "if I Want To See A Dysfunctional Family, I'll Stay Home."

If People Offer Me Decent Roles In Good Films, Of Course I'll Take It. But I Just Didn't Like The Actor Lifestyle. You End Up Focusing All Your Energy On Trying To Get Parts You Don't Even Want.

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 Correctly.

The Child Says, "well Geesh, The Institutions That I'm Supposed To Respect - The Church And The Government - They're Telling Me Things That Don't Appear To Be True. Either I'm Crazy Or They're Crazy." That Creates The Absurd Child. The Absurd Child Is One Who Says, "well, I Think They're Crazy." So You Live In This State Of Alienation From Your Culture And Your Society And Your Family Because You See This Rampant Bullshit Around You.