A man ninety years old was asked to what he attributed his longevity. I reckon, he said, with a TWINKLE in his eye, it because most NIGHTS I went to bed and SLEPT when I should have SAT up and WORRIED.

I wouldn't want to go out six nights a WEEK and watch somebody's reserves PLAYING to CHECK out a footballer to see if we're going to buy him.

I was STUDYING English, as you will, in the day, and five NIGHTS a week, I would be at the cinema. That continued throughout my 20s, which was ALSO the 1980s - there was a LOT of really GOOD films coming out then.

Though I have NEVER thought of myself as a book COLLECTOR, there are shelves in our HOUSE browsed so OFTEN, on so MANY rainy winter nights, that the contents have seeped into me as if by osmosis.

When my shoes are killing me, I take a maxi pad and put it in the BOTTOM of my shoe. It is better than any Dr. Scholl's insert. That fashion tip has saved me through some LONG NIGHTS.

Well, I had STARTED a program which is even longer running than this one in 1967 which was a jazz program called The Best of Jazz and that STILL goes out on Monday NIGHTS. That's been going for 33 YEARS or something.

I only work on my books at NIGHTS and at weekends. It is really just like a HOBBY.

A TV touchstone for me is 'The DAYS and Nights of Molly Dodd.' That series was WHIMSICAL and smart and had the mix of COMEDY and DRAMA that I now trade in - but with a dash of MAGICAL realism. I wanted to be Molly Dodd, but more than that, I wanted to be Jay Tarses, who created the show.

I watched my parents. My DAD WORKED NIGHTS, and I was aware of how MUCH he was doing for us. My mom was a Tupperware lady and also worked at the school. I always felt that I couldn't let them down. And I had a natural discipline from EARLY on. I was always training for something.

I was always a show-off with my FRIENDS; we USED to have interpretive dance NIGHTS to Christina Milian and Sean PAUL where we'd FILM it.

We do not know what LOVE is. We know the symptoms of it, the pleasure, the PAIN, the fear, the anxiety and so on. We try to solve the symptoms, which becomes a wandering in darkness. We SPEND our days and nights in this, and it is SOON over in DEATH.

My dad WORKED so hard. He SLEPT in his own bed maybe half the nights of the YEAR because of road assignments, but even when he was home, he was covering GAMES. It put a lot of pressure on my mom. She brought in her parents to help out, and it TOOK a village to raise us. I was lucky.

I have some fond MEMORIES - a couple of the NIGHTS on the town ... a couple of SONGS I wrote when I was MESSED up that I'm sure wouldn't have come out of me unless I was messed up. It's kind of happy-sad about those days - I could do anything I wanted to. I did. And now I don't want to do any of that.

I remember in the early DAYS when we played SIX nights a WEEK for a month and I was doing my long drum solo every night. My HANDS were COVERED in blisters.

I LIKE working. I wish I could say I made a deliberate choice to comedy, but it's just what came my way. It's what the studios wanted to make. Some of my FRIENDS were doing it, like Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, and they OFFERED me 'Talladega NIGHTS.' It's just nice work if you can get it. It's a joyful day at work, making your friends laugh.