Quotes

I'm not really an exhibitionist. I'm drawn to the outrageous stuff because it's fun, not because it's some deep compulsion. I'm no tortured, anger-stoked, deeply neurotic comic. Just a pretty low-key normal guy. A, "Hey, the glass is half-full", kind of a guy. But please keep it quiet, or I may never work again.

I often don't think a lot about the ramifications of anything I do.

There's just something about yelling that's funny to me.

[on being a comic]: I attribute it to growing up in safe, boring suburbia in California. I wasn't beaten up by anyone, there was a really low crime rate. There was really nothing to do except think of funny things.

It was a gradual rise that started on SNL. I went from being the guy who did the cheer-leading thing, to the guy who plays the president to, "Hey, that's Will Ferrell!" I saw that happen then in terms of films, and it was really Old School (2003) that got me a real lead part. It was a scary thing when I left SNL (in 2003), but then "Old School" came out, and then Elf (2003) happened the same year, and now Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006).

I saw a news story recently that said I'm 6' 4". I'm creeping up, like in the high school football programs where you give yourself 15 more pounds. In three years I want to be 6' 5" in stories. And I'm gonna do the opposite of these kids like LeBron James who are coming out of high school and going into the NBA. I'm gonna be the first 36-year-old white guy who tries to make it in the NBA.

It doesn't really exist, this Frat Pack. We run into each other on occasions and we all like each other's films, I guess, but there isn't some big funny restaurant or bar where we all hang out. At least, if there is, they haven't invited me. I wasn't in You, Me and Dupree (2006), Luke Wilson's last movie, and none of them was in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) with me and, actually, nobody gives a shit.

I've got no dark secrets, I wasn't beaten up, my parents were kind to me and there was a low crime rate where we lived. Maybe that's where the comedy comes from, as some sort of reaction to the safe, boring suburbs. Although, I gotta say, I never had any resentment of the place. I loved the suburbs.

I'd much rather be in a comedy. In my view, comedy wins out in the long run. I'm not sure I'm a good enough actor to play real tragedy, so I bring a comic element to most things as my answer to the world's problems. I'm not a clown, though. I love goofing around, but I don't feel the need to act the clown in private - I do it at work, that's where I exorcise my demons. Although I confess that I do sometimes put together outfits to annoy my wife.

I always forced myself to do crazy things in public. In college I would push an overhead projector across campus with my pants just low enough to show my butt.

[on his role as a basketball player in Semi-Pro (2008)] I love the fact that this is historically accurate and funny all at the same time. You can parody the sport and you can parody the era, but at the same time you have a built-in arc for the audience as they watch this team try to attain the lofty goal of fourth place.

[on George W. Bush] I had a couple of opportunities to go and meet him, and I declined, partly out of comedic purposes, because when I was on the show [Saturday Night Live (1975)] at the time, it didn't make sense to really meet the people that you play, for fear of them influencing you. And then the other side of it is, from a political standpoint, I don't want to meet that guy.

[on running in the Boston Marathon] I actually had people running up next to me with beer bongs and offering me shots. All of this crazy stuff. And no, I didn't take any of it.

(2006) I was never the class clown. I was popular in high school and in college. I was good at sports. I've always been a 'but look, the glass is half-full' kind of guy. I used to worry that I wasn't crazy enough to succeed in comedy. Or troubled enough. In the beginning, people were surprised that a seemingly mild-mannered person could bring a script or a character to life. But I'm not above throwing a chair out a window just to see what happens. I may not have demons, but I am kind of immune to inhibitions.

(2006, on living with his mother for three years after college) I had no ego about that. It's kind of sad.

(on Stranger Than Fiction (2006)) It was so freeing to not run around and act like a crazy person. It was so nice to be conversational and talk like a normal human being. I felt like my job on Stranger Than Fiction was to play really good defense. Don't throw the ball out of bounds. If you're open, take the shot but, otherwise, don't get too fancy.

(2006) I do feel, at heart, that I'm a lazy person who found this thing that I love. Comedy makes me industrious. Without it, I'm just another guy.

I rotate my clothes so everything is equally worn. Sometimes, that means orange shorts and red shoes. My wife is like "Really?".

[Lorne Michaels] never really has a moment where he says, "So, welcome to the show." He phrases it, "So, we're bringing you to New York." And I thought, God, another audition? And he goes, "Cheri [Oteri]'s going to be there, too." And that's when it hit me: Oh, my God. I got the gig. But I didn't have a celebratory moment with him. Then I got self-conscious, like it came across that I didn't care about getting the job. So I stood up real quick, and I'm like "Well, gosh, thank you. I just want to shake your hand." And he said, "Do whatever you have to do.".