Quotes

I have no idea where my pathetic nature comes from. If I thought about it too long, it would depress me.

I think a character in a comedy should not know they're in a comedy.

I don't think of myself as funny - I don't fill up a room with my humor... I would fail miserably as a stand-up comedian.

You can't seem to have any sort of inhibition. Or shame. Or absolute horror at your own physical presence. I know I'm not a woman's fantasy man; I don't have to uphold this image of male beauty, so that's kind of a relief in a way.

When they approached me about who I would want writingGet Smart (2008),I suggested B.J. The episodes that he's written walk the line between intensely funny and slightly offensive. But they always fall on the side of being funny. I also suggested him because I think he's going to be someone I'll be working for someday, and I want to get on his good side now - on hisThe Office (2005)co-star and co-writer B.J. Novak.

[on life sinceThe 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)made his a movie star.] I have a helluva lot more money than I used to! That's the only perceivable difference. I will definitely be able to send my kids to college now, which was a question before. (2007)

[on playing Maxwell Smart in the upcomingGet Smart (2008)] I am sort of billing it as a comedic "Bourne Identity". [referring toThe Bourne Identity (2002)] (2007)

[on being a father] I'm already seeing my daughter's cynical sense of humor and she's six! I bought these shoes, and I'm thinking I'm a cool dad, I'm going to show her my new half-boot shoes. So I said, "What do you think of these?" And she's like, "Mmm no, not liking them." (2007)

(2005, on a pre-acting job) I worked the third shift at a convenience store for a few months. At four in the morning most people are looking for cigarettes, porn or one of those shriveled, angry-looking hot dogs from the rotating grill. One night, though, a woman came in during the wee hours. She looked a bit distraught as she paid at the counter. She paused for a moment, looked up at me and asked, "Do you think I'm pretty?" As it turned out, she had just walked in on her boyfriend with another woman. We proceeded to have a lengthy conversation about a person's self-worth, fidelity, trust and relationships. And then I treated her to a slushy blue frozen drink.

(2005, on originally wanting to be a lawyer) Being a lawyer just sounded good to me. Kind of like how being a doctor or being an astrophysicist or a microbiologist sounds good. But it took a complete turn when I was filling out my law-school application. I couldn't answer the essay question, which was, Why do you want to be an attorney? I had absolutely no idea. Uh, to make a lot of money and sue people? To be hated based solely on my job title? I couldn't come up with one good reason. That ended my law career rather quickly.

(2005, on performing announcing duties for the video games, Outlaw Golf and Outlaw Volleyball) Who wouldn't want to get paid for spending a couple of hours in a sound booth? I went in thinking, Yeah, free money! But it was so much harder than I thought it'd be. There are thousands of possible scenarios in a video game, and you have to do lines for all of them. It was pretty ta xing. Then again, it's not like I was chopping down trees or anything. That sounds pretty whiny, doesn't it? "I had to say so many words. It was haaaard! Waaaah!"

[on his character fromThe Daily Show (1996)] In my mind, he was a guy who had done national news reporting but had fallen from grace somehow and was now relegated to this terrible cable news show and was very bitter about it and thought he was better, but he wasn't.

[on whether he feared being typecast in comedy roles] I've done big commercial movies and little independent movies, and I've played jerks and suicidal Proust scholars, and I feel like I've been really lucky to play all the different types of characters. So, no, I don't worry about that. If I do get pigeonholed, it's nothing I can really control.

[on his surprise at hearing so much laughter inFoxcatcher (2014)] The way Bennett [Miller] describes the humor is that it's funny until it's not anymore, and if this story didn't have the outcome that it does, it could just be an absurd, ridiculous story. But the fact it ends up where it does, and that there's this pall that hangs over the entire narrative, changes everything. But some of it so absurd you can't help but laugh because it seems too strange to be true.

[on male bonding inFoxcatcher (2014)] It's about offering up yourself to vulnerability. I think Bennett presents all this things in a very open way and allows the viewer to draw their own conclusion. He was finding it, as we were finding it, and I think that's an extremely exciting aspect of working like this.