My First Few Films Were Institutional Comedies,

A Friend Of Mine Is Trying To Do A Documentary Where He Brings Jewish And Arab Comedians To Occupied Territories In Israel. He Wants To Do Shows As A Way Of Finding Some Comedic Common Denominator. When He Proposed The Idea To One Of The Officials At The Jenin Refuge Camp, The Guy Just Stared At Him And Said, "this Is Not A Joke To Us. We Don't Think That Laughing Is The Answer."

Most Comedies Are Calculated. They Tend To Pander. They're Not About Anything Important.

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."

I Have Tons Of Rescuing Fantasies Based On The Movies I Saw When I Was Growing Up. I Wanted To Be Robin Hood And The Three Musketeers And The Scarlet Pimpernel.

First And Foremost, You Have To Make The Movie For Yourself. And That's Not To Say, To Hell With Everyone Else, But What Else Have You Got To Go On But Your Own Taste And Judgment?