NICHOLAS STOLLER

As a comedy writer, I'm always praying for the day I can tell a self-aware/break-the-fourth-wall style of joke.

I knew after 'Sarah Marshall' that my favorite genre is romantic comedy. Nothing is more satisfying than a great romantic comedy.

I think the best romantic comedies don't have villains.

I was born in England - though both of my parents are American - and there's something about the 'Muppets' where they have this combination of English and American humor.

A big part of being in a relationship or marriage or whatever is you have to eventually compromise. Your life doesn't end up exactly the way you think it's going to, and if it's the right relationship, you might have to compromise what you're doing professionally.

The two times I had nervous breakdowns in my life were when I graduated from college and had my first kid.

R-rated comedies make as much money as PG-13. And I think the audiences wanna be shocked. Especially with comedy.

I've always had as many friends who are women as friends who are guys.

I mean, come on: At the end of the day, we're all bisexual. A hundred years from now, there's not gonna be gay or straight. There's gonna be everything.

Comedy is my favorite genre. I think it often doesn't get the respect it deserves, and I think one of the reasons is there was a tradition in the past of comedy looking kind of brightly lit and like a sitcom.

My family is really into politics.

The more real it is, the funnier it is. The more awkward it is, the more people are stumbly, the funnier it is. I like a sharp joke, but it has to say something that someone would actually say.

I'm pretty old-fashioned. I feel most people - and this is purely from observation; I'm not an expert - but I think most people want to get married, whatever one might say about the institution of marriage, especially if you are in a long relationship.

The frustrations and joys of parenthood are just hard to understand until you have a kid... the constant fight you're having with yourself, like loving being with your kid but also being kind of bored and wanting to look at your iPhone - it's kind of an interesting thing that's hard to write about before you've experienced it.

You just never know with movies how they'll be seen in a few years. You have no idea. Like, movies that were super popular when they came out have been forgotten. And other movies - and I put 'Sarah Marshall' in this - kind of weirdly stand the test of time a little bit.

Basically, I always thought that if I had a movie that did well enough and warranted having a sequel, I would seriously entertain it because that's a huge blessing when that happens in your career.

All of the things I've directed, I'm really emotionally close to. That's why I choose to direct them and spend years on them.

I'm not into sports, and politics is kind of my sport. I love talking about it and debating it and getting into it. I also think people on both sides of the aisle have real exaggerated, incorrect views of the other side, and that is fascinating to me.

I watched all kinds of dirty movies as a kid. My parents were very liberal about that, and I was still an uber-nerd who never drank or did drugs. I don't think it matters.

I think the best romantic comedies are hard funny - no soft jokes, but ones that make you, like, guffaw. I also think that they have to make you feel good, ideally, and make you feel warm inside at the end.

I am personally quite liberal.

There are still movies where females are just there to be cool, or they are there to lambaste their husbands and scold. But female comedy characters are changing for the better.

Your characters can do the worst things on Earth - cut to a happy baby, it ends up being OK.

Each of the 'Toy Story's are telling an emotional story, but they're comedic. They're so successful creatively in terms of the stories they're telling. And they're pretty grounded.

As a moviegoer, I'm always annoyed when a big joke is ruined in the trailer, but generally, it actually makes it play better.