Molly Shannon

“When I was 12, my friend and I tried to sneak onto a plane from my hometown of Cleveland to New York City! My dad encouraged us - he was a wild guy, big on jokes.”

“I really love having lots of down time with my kids.”

“If you can write and create original characters, do your own show, develop your own material, it gives you more power than just waiting around to be hired.”

“I definitely have loads of respect for writers and the art of writing.”

“Mary Katherine Gallagher is an exaggerated version of me, how I felt when I was little.”

“I'm no way one of those comedians who want to do drama. I really do love comedies. I hope to go back to it.”

“I think I'm a really hard worker, and I feel like my attitude is to just enjoy the process of being creative and developing and 'just throw a bunch of stuff against the wall and see what sticks.'”

“I lead a very normal life. I'm just so happy being a mother that everything else revolves around that. If a movie falls through or a TV show doesn't get picked up, I'm pretty easygoing about it because I'm just like, 'Yay, I get to be with my kids more!'”

“I went to NYU drama school, so I was a very serious actress. I used to do monologues with a Southern accent, and I was really into drama and drama school. And then, in my last year of drama school, I did a comedy show, and the show became a big hit on campus.”

“She's true to herself and she's determined. She has things going against her, but she forges ahead despite all of that. I think that's encouraging. She's got some problems, but she has hope and tries to plow through things. I think that's a good role model.”

“Without a doubt, the worst part of being a mom is having to floss my kids' teeth every night. It's so tedious.”

“When I see a mom embarrassed because her kid is having a temper tantrum, I'm like, 'Please! Do you think I've never gone through that?' Women tend to be too hard on themselves.”

“I never think I want to try to be funny. And humor, if there is anything funny, should come from a real place.”

“I love comedy, but I did always consider myself a dramatic comedian.”

“I'm very driven by writing. Coming from 'Saturday Night Live,' because it's such a writing job, and we all write our parts on the show and create characters, I'm so respectful of good writing.”

“People would be like, 'Oh, 'Saturday Night Live' is such a stepping stone!' And I remember being like, 'A stepping stone?! This is my everything! I could just stop right here! This is the pinnacle!'”

“There was a period where I stopped auditioning because I was like, 'I don't have the heart.' There's just so much rejection.”

“I went to drama school at New York University.”

“I think things get a lot better after high school. I think the ones that struggle during that time tend to have better experiences after.”

“I used to watch 'SNL' when I was babysitting, after I put the kids to bed. It was the Gilda Radner and Bill Murray era. I loved it.”