A great speech can make you remember something about what you believe, about who you are, about who you want to be. It's rare when that kind of thing happens. But it is important, and it is real.

Humor connects us, especially in politics. It's a way of surprising one another with shared context and experience.

Everybody hates Congress; even Congress hates Congress.

We don't want people to be afraid of saying something interesting on the off chance it's taken the wrong way.

The Internet didn't cause Donald Trump, and it certainly can't solve Donald Trump.

One of the hardest lessons of childhood is reckoning with the instability of the world.

Life tests our willingness, in ways large and small, to tell the truth.

More and more people support equality for their gay friends and neighbors, and that is not because the 'Duck Dynasty' guy almost lost his show.

Washington is filled with people making other people's arguments for money.

We have a lot of really boring, silly, stupid politics. We need people to point that out.

One of the lessons of 2016 is to spend less time worrying about what will happen and more time worrying about what we want to happen.

There is that definition of leadership that says, 'Leadership is convincing people to do things that they otherwise wouldn't have done because you've made them believe it's the right thing to do.' And a great speech can do that.

'Veep' is a great satire of democracy.

The great thing about writing jokes for President Obama is that he is not afraid to tell jokes that are actually funny - and not just funny for a politician.

We are drowning in information.

Trump is a raptor testing the fences, and he found weaknesses to escape and try things that would work, every single day.

As a rule, I think people in L.A. are interested in any writer who brings a different skill set and experiences. There's an attraction to novelty and to anyone whose writing isn't based in screenwriting. I had that novelty.

Whenever you're talking about using humor in politics or in a policy speech or in a serious moment, you're talking about using it as a tool to engage people. That's why putting a joke in a political speech is a luxury, and it is always a risk.

Barack Obama took office in the middle of a massive financial crisis. He was handed a bunch of messes all around the world and at home.

It doesn't matter what the early votes look like. It doesn't matter what the polls look like. We can lose everything.

It was awesome how supportive the White House was. It meant a lot to me that when I left, the people that I worked with - Jon Favreau and David Axelrod and others - really understood that this was something that I felt I held had to do.

There are a lot of heartbroken, anxious people that thought better of their country. We're heartbroken by how far Trump has gotten to the most powerful position in the world.

It is extremely chilling that Donald Trump views the spectacle of choosing cabinet appointments in a way that is similar to deciding whether or not to fire Lil Jon or Joan Rivers.

I'm not insulting Trump supporters; I'm calling the people that CNN puts on television terrible representatives of the views of conservatives.