Nicholas Stoller Quotes

You can tell in six seconds if someone is funny.

Obviously I had a different sense of humor when I was 13.

Sometimes when I do a joke and it doesn't get a lot of laughs, it kind of feels like I'm doing jazz. That's kinda cool because jazz is cool, but sometimes jazz sucks ... Maybe I'm the Kenny G of comedy.

The second you change the way you look at a situation, your stress levels drop.

I was wiser at 30 than I am now. My judgment was better at 12. If you look out the windshield of a Hyundai or a Bentley, you see the same road.

Lateral thinking is concerned not with playing with the existing pieces but with seeking to change those very pieces. It is concerned with the perception part of thinking. This is where we organise the external world into the pieces we can then 'process'.

Look at the problems in your life. Ask yourself, 'What kind of thoughts am I having that create this?'

How can there be inaccuracy in comedy?

My entire film career's been dependent on my ability to look unattractive.

Comedy is a weird thing. You have to understand, it's the weirdest thing you can do. There's no consensus. It's not like... People say, "I saw Saving Private Ryan, and that scene on the beach is just so moving." I can't imagine anyone who would say "I don't find that moving!" But you can show, whether it's Laurel & Hardy or the Three Stooges or Jiminy Glick In Lalawood, some people are going to look at it and say "That's the funniest thing I've ever seen." Some people will say "I don't get it." Who's right, who's wrong?

A lot of times we look at the past as something that was really great, but we ignore things that have actually gotten better since then.Our girls [Paper Girls] are now dealing with what their futures look like, and reflecting on what they hoped the present day versions might be like.

When I dance, I look like I'm a dad at a prom. I never grasped my limbs. Ever since puberty I've just kind of felt like we don't understand each other.

We must not look for some kind of Messiah.

The longer and more carefully we look at a funny story, the sadder it becomes.

What looks tragic might be comic on second consideration, and what is comic might bring tears in time.

You really have to begin by figuring out what kind of person you are. The tip is to really take a look at yourself.

Comedy is more difficult. You can look at scenes when you're doing a drama like, “Maybe it works,” but in comedy, when you're doing it, either it works or it doesn't. You have to keep doing it until it does, and the requirement is more.

I found doing that kind of comedy without an audience is just... for me, it's almost impossible. You need the audience to do their half of the work.

On this global stage, Superman is someone that we can all look up to and he's almost kind of ultimately American.

My sort of looks are of the kind that bore me when I see them on other people.

Why there you are, Stephen,' cried Jack. 'You are come home, I find.' That is true,' said Stephen with an affectionate look: he prized statements of this kind in Jack.

I am much more likely to care about someone trying to be funny and give them some credit for whatever he or she did that was remotely funny than I am to be mused by somebody declaring this isn't funny, that isn't funny, this sucks. If you want to write humor, you're going to have to get used to that.

Jack Benny had style from the beginning. He stood straight and walked kind of sideways as if he were being gently shoved by a touch of genius.

I'm always doing what I can to look for and just feel out funny things that are happening in the scene and improvise off of them.

A lot of amazing comedians that I've worked with just really follow their instincts and you can't really teach someone comedic timing. And you just kind of have it.