“Democracy is like a tamborine - not everyone can be trusted with it.”

“In improv, the whole thing is that it is a relationship between the two people, as a back and forth. In standup, you don't really want to be listening to what somebody is saying; you want to project your jokes into their face. And that's really not a good instinct with a 'Daily Show' field piece, where it's supposed to be an interview.”

“Politics has become infused with narcissism in America.”

“It's a great time to be doing political satire when the world is on a knife edge.”

“If you work on a comedy show, your basic form of communication is teasing. That's generally how we speak to each other: you communicate the information between the lines of insulting sentences.”

“People, I guess, generally come to see me do stand-up with a working knowledge of my broad sense of humor on 'The Daily Show'... I don't think anyone would mistake me as an actual anchor.”

“There is an inherent hope and positive drive to New Yorkers.”

“I get nostalgic for British negativity. There is an inherent hope and positive drive to New Yorkers. When you go back to Britain, everybody is just running everything down. It's like whatever the opposite of a hug is.”

“Believe it or not the war on Iraq is based on a sound scientific principle, The bee hive principle. Which clearly states that if you are stung by a bee, you should follow it back to its nest and then proceed to beat nest to a pulp with a baseball bat until the stripey little turd has learned its lesson.”

“Democracy is like a tamborine - not everyone can be trusted with it.”

“The German language is so sonorous, isn't it? Beautiful language...the language of poetry. Angry, angry poetry.”