Mike Binder

I never once had a regular paycheck. Not for more than six weeks in a row and for the most part not even that. I still haven't. The notion of some whistling kid with a mail cart coming down the hall and handing me my weekly paycheck is something I've only seen in Matthew Broderick movies.

My whole career this is the biggest failure financially, but at the same time, it's one of my favorite things I've ever done.

Nobody loses money on my movies. I make them cheap.

My movies don't make any money, and they don't really light the world on fire. But I'm really lucky because I've gotten them made.

I just kind of went from being a standup, one-man band, to then kind of breezing back and working with other people. And now I'm just trying to be a legitimate guy who pays the rent, you know.

I enjoy being an actor in my own movies.

From very early on, I had always wanted to be a stand-up comedian. It was my passion; it was my goal. It was a world I was simply infatuated with. So, as soon as I could, I moved out to L.A. chasing after my dream.

Early on, I joined that large group of show business cadets who were 'multi-hyphenates,' 'independents,' 'self produced' or 'alternately financed.' Sometimes, most times, I've had to do it all: raise the money, write the script, produce, direct and act in the film.

I think everything benefits from a little comedy. The worst thing to me is to see a great drama or a great thriller with no laughs.

I've done a lot of dramedies in my career. You know, I started as a standup comic, and then the movies that I was doing, like 'Up Side of Anger' were kind of like - they're hard. They're hard to sell; they're hard to get made, you know.

Books are a little better movies than just screenplays because there's more fat on the bone. There's more character development. There's more stuff to pick from.

The holidays are a rough time for the homeless, but it's a year-round problem we have to solve.