Richard Hugo taught me that anyone with a desire to write an ear for language and a bit of imagination could become a writer. He also in a way gave me permission to write about northern Montana.

Grandchildren have taught me how important the future is. I try to look through their eyes and envision what's in their imagination. What's the world going to look like when they're my age? That really does take a huge imagination.

Charles Laughton who's a great hero of mine only ever made one film and it happens to be one of the great films ever which is 'The Night of the Hunter.' It's full of his kind of imagination and creation and how you do things and just in the way he used the studio I just thought it was a fantastical way of using the studio.

I don't like this idea of Method. I come from that school but what I was taught was that it's your imagination. You do your homework and you use your imagination.

The sense of humor has other things to do than to make itself conspicuous in the act of laughter.

The script was just the best I'd read in a long time and I love the humor which I wasn't expecting and I like the fact that my six year old daughter can see the show without being you know protected from it.

I really hate sitcoms on television with canned laughter and stuff. What really makes me laugh is the real-life stuff. I've got a dry sense of humor.

Since the goal of my programs is to show audiences how humor can both help them heal as well as deal with not-so-funny stuff I decided to discuss the events of the previous week the pain all of us were feeling and how humor and some laughter might be beneficial.

Laughter and the broader category of humor are key elements in helping us go on with our life after a loss.

Honest good humor is the oil and wine of a merry meeting and there is no jovial companionship equal to that where the jokes are rather small and laughter abundant.