I've spent most of my career in ensembles, and I'm good with that.

Humans are ridiculous. We're all pathetic strivers who will fall short. If you can accept that, it's optimistic because you can shoot for the moon and know you're never going to get there, and that's OK.

The '50s sucked for a lot of people on Earth.

Monty Python' became my religion when I was 10. It led me out of the depths of darkness. I loved 'The Goodies,' too, and 'The Two Ronnies.' I watched those shows on the public television station in Chicago.

Comedy is drama. I think that if your characters are feeling something that is very real, then they have to respond in a way that feels real to them, and some situations, the only response you could possibly have is to respond in a way that's so extreme that people are going to laugh.

Quite often, intent on conveying how things can go wrong for a culture (science fiction) or an individual (horror) or all of magical creation (fantasy), works of fantastika often preclude comedy, because humor gets in the way of messages of doom or struggle.

Sometimes it takes ten seconds to see some humor in your dilemmas, sometimes ten years.

I hadn't gotten a chance to do a lot of comedy, so 'Hart of Dixie' was a great place where I got a chance to do that and play.