Salt Lake City gave me a lot of surprises. How progressive the city actually is, for instance, compared to the rest of Utah - it's like this purple dot in a sea of red. And the government there is kind of a mix of conservative values and progressive ideas.

I get recognized by some people in my community, but not a lot. In fact, they would say, 'What do you do?' And I would say, 'Well, I did 'The Bernie Mac Show.'' And they would say, 'Oh, really? Well, do you know so-and-so?' And I'd say, 'Yeah, I hired them. I was the boss!' They don't believe it.

There are tragedies that happen all the time in America, but there are certain types of tragedies that kind of pull us together and make us pause and give us a chance to reflect about where we are, where we're going, and that sort of thing.

One of the missions of 'The Nightly Show' was to have a conversation with America in a sense, and talk about the things that people didn't want to talk about it.

The last thing I would ever do is try to become a network programmer.

I really enjoyed being able to be one of the people who weighed in on the events. As hard as it is to do that every day, because it is exhausting, it really is fun to do that, especially when you feel like you really did something well, and it really hit.

Even though you're in charge, you're not completely in ownership. You know, the audience takes a huge ownership of your show. Look at comments about shows and tell me if I'm wrong. Look at shows like 'The Walking Dead' and the ownership that the audience has of that show.

I just feel it's important to make sure that behind the scenes is as filled with diverse voices as in front of the scene is.

There's something about a new family moving into the White House that's kind of interesting, even if you didn't vote for them.

I have a lot of passion for a lot of different things.

Writing is the most frustrating, but it's something that I've always done.

I really love having conversations and deconstructing things. I don't mind not having a laugh every second. Sometimes things deserve a little more discussion, and then you can have some fun after that.

I'm not the type of person to have a schadenfreude.

The business part of it can be very vexing. You always have to keep certain metrics and everything. Because all I can do is make a good show.

Some things are so tragic that you don't know what's funny in it, and some things are so ridiculous you don't know if it's worth talking about it.

My parents are from the Midwest. They're from Evanston, Illinois. They moved out to Los Angeles right before I was born.

There is this false perception that comedians can never be serious. It's like from like the era of court jesters.

I love stand-up comedians. I really do.

Even when you hear about a comedian getting married, among comedians, we're always kind of like, what are they doing?

Comedians rarely have writers, and if you do it's usually a sign of laziness.

For stand-up comedians that go onstage and get to write and perform and direct, and do all these things, the allure of a television show is still there but if it doesn't offer a level of creative fulfillment, it's oddly unappealing.

I don't have any delusions. I'm not a novelist - I'm a comedian who writes. I love doing the stand-up and the touring and the albums and all that, but it's pretty amazing to go into a library and see your book there.

For a comedian to kind of catch onto something right as something's catching on in our culture, a lot of it is luck, and you hope the joke is funny.

I believe that comedians do what they do, and then they get credit or criticism for doing it. There's nothing planned about this.