"I can be really annoying, but I also feel like I'm a nice person."
"You come to a point where you realize your work doesn't save you."
"I'm attracted to polarizing characters who upend the civility of life."
"The purpose of making people feel uncomfortable is to play with their preconceptions."
"I'm a weird guy. I'm practically albino. What about me isn't weird?"
"I still think of Heaven as a liberal-arts school."
"What I find frustrating about scripted television is that it's rare that you are surprised by how you feel about the character, or how you feel about the show."
"People kind of stumble their way through life a lot of times."
"My first job was with 'Dawson's Creek' where everybody looked good and they spoke better than you. It was kind of a wish fulfillment, fantasy-type show."
"There's a victory in letting go of your expectations."
"A flower doesn't love you or hate you, it just exists."
"It's always interesting to challenge yourself to say, 'Is this the best you can do?'"
"To me, this is from a Buddhist perspective or whatever, sometimes people who are working out their political beliefs, they can rage against the man, and yet at the same time can be oblivious to their own way of stepping on the foot of the person right next to them."
"As you get older, you realize just figuring out how to be nice to the people in your personal sphere is almost more challenging than trying to change the bigger culture."
"The things that drive me crazy are coming from this place of people suffering because of people polluting into rivers or whatever. It's not simply just about systems; it's an emotional reaction to seeing animals or people suffering."
"You can come to a political position from an emotional place."
"There's something magical about Oaxaca and the vibe of the people."
"'Girls' is a huge show, as far as buzz, and magazine covers, and getting a ton of copy, and awards. And yet I don't think the viewership is huge."
"I find as a viewer, when I go to see comedies, the strain to be funny throughout the whole thing. I start to lose my sense of reality, and it ends up feeling like an empty experience; there's funny stuff in it but I've lost the emotional connection to the characters because it's just so bananas."
"I guess I'm trying to write stuff that I, as a viewer, would connect to."
"To me, I definitely stand in the corner of wanting to give voice to the bullied, and not the bully."
"You feel a little weird, as a writer of scripted television for many years, to say you're a fan of reality TV. You feel like a traitor. But I am a total fan."
"There are life lessons that can be derived from reality television."
"To be perfectly honest, I'm competitive."
"I'm not looking to be the King of Comedy, or the King of Hollywood. I just want to be able to keep making stuff that I'm into and have the opportunity to challenge myself with, wearing different hats."
