Judd Apatow

“There's something honorable about holding out for love and not breaking up for the sake of the baby. I see people get divorced, and there is a part of me that thinks, I wonder how hard they tried?”

“There was definitely a period when I just felt out of sync with earth.”

“Television is much more difficult because at every moment the network can force you to change things based on their belief about what would make it popular. You're in a constant debate with a gun at your head, and the gun is cancellation. So it's hard to win the arguments.”

“I don't know if you can be a born-again virgin.”

“For me, until I know that the audience really gets what I'm trying to communicate I'm not done.”

“All of my jokes were about not being able to meet anybody. I didn't have any insight into anything - even my own insecurities.”

“I love magazines and film critics, so I eat it up. I'm not one of those people who says 'I never read anything.' I generally read all of it.”

“My way of dealing with the world has always been to make fun of it and observe it but not take part in it. That's how I became a writer. But when you have kids, suddenly you have to be part of things. It leads almost to a breakdown because your whole defense mechanism is now really destructive.”

“I always see other people as predecessors and admire them.”

“I think a lot of studios today are run by women, and we are entering a time when a lot of women have evolved in Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade and wanted to become writers and comedians.”

“Eventually, the nerds and the geeks will have their day.”

“It's so difficult to shock America these days.”

“I wanted to see how funny I could be without making the choice that every 10 minutes something big and visual had to happen.”

“The thing that is incredibly helpful is that we screen the movies and we ask the audience if they like it or not and we ask a lot of questions and do testing on the movies. For comedies, at least, it's very helpful. If they're not laughing and they don't say that they loved it, then I have screwed up.”

“To me, I've never understood why there is any question about are women as funny as men.”

“They say certain people aren’t good soldiers because if they’re in a foxhole all night—you know, if you’re creative and smart, you’re thinking about all the different ways someone is going to blow your head off. But if you’re not that smart, you’re just like chilling out. And I feel like that in life. I’m just in the foxhole all fucking day thinking about everything that’s going to go wrong in every possible way.”

“I'm the guy who gets uncomfortable. That's why I was able to write 'The 40-Year-Old Virgin' and 'Knocked Up.' I believe in those guys.”

“People like the comedy more when they care about the characters.”

“Well, every movie is an experiment. And the only way you can grow at what you're doing is to take chances. You can't try to stick with what worked last time.”

“I put on a big show when I write something I think is funny.”