Carol Leifer

I'm always a big fan of if you approach somebody politely about something and you're not a nudge - you're just pretty honest and simple, my kind of philosophy is that I'm not afraid of 'no,' and that's way different than 'I won't take no for an answer.'

I'm not into working out. My philosophy: No pain, no pain.

Just be your authentic self because there's nothing sexier or more beautiful than that.

I always say to women, 'Take advantage of the fact that you're in the minority, don't see it as a disadvantage. You're that much more unique when there's fewer of you.'

There were very few women comics when I started out doing stand-up. But I always saw that as a great advantage.

My kind of gay is like the late-breaking-lesbian kind of gay.

All my other relationships with men, there was so much maneuvering and strategic decisions and stuff.

My kind of gay, meeting a woman and falling in love, is a different experience because it wasn't anything about 'Oh, I've always been gay and I'm breaking the chains.'

Honestly, so much of my book is about the best things in my life have happened since I'm 40.

My father was a huge influence on me.

I think what I would say to my younger self, and probably to younger, just starting-out writers is that a lot of times you're just afraid to put yourself out there, and it's uncomfortable because it's working up the courage to do something, to push yourself to do those things.

My father was a really funny guy. He lived a good long life. And he was the reason I wanted to be funny and become a comedian and a comedy writer, so to say that he's somewhat of a mythic figure in my life would be an understatement.