For years it's driven me crazy that women don't have better roles especially in comedies. I know so many funny women but I always felt... misogynist streak is too strong a term - but a dismissiveness.

I have an inability to enjoy things but that's why we're in comedy. If we were happy we wouldn't be funny I guess.

When I first envisioned 'Funny Games' in the mid-1990s it was my intention to have an American audience watch the movie. It is a reaction to a certain American cinema its violence its naivety the way American cinema toys with human beings. In many American films violence is made consumable.

'Funny Games' was conceived as a provocation. My other films are different. If people feel my other films are or respond to them as provocation then that's quite different. 'Funny Games' is the only one of mine where my intention was to provoke the audience.

It's unbearable when someone changes around you. Just imagine that your life partner changes then it is difficult to cope with. Or your mother. Or your father. They were strong and now they're like a baby - it's not so funny.

I am accusing him of stealing my best material he was a very funny man.

I love a smart well-written show and '30 Rock ' well you can't get any better than that. Tina Fey poos funny. There's nothing that she does that isn't funny. That show is an example of how brilliant she is. It's so smart. They've done some brilliant commentary about the 'Housewives' with 'Queen of Jordan ' their show-within-the-show.

We sit in a room for months trying to think of funny things.

Music is more difficult - try naming a political band. The Dead Kennedys. The Dead Kennedys are political but they are more funny than they are political.

Only bad golfers are lucky. They're the ones bouncing balls off trees curbs turtles and cars. Good golfers have bad luck. When you hit the ball straight a funny bounce is bound to be unlucky.