If necessity is the mother of invention, urgency is the uncle of change. Without it, progress slows and then stops and then reverses.
Nell Scovell
Sometimes, not knowing what you're doing allows you to do things you never knew you could do.
Male writers don't want to be judged in the room. They want to be able to scarf an entire bag of potato chips while cracking fart jokes and making lewd comments without fear of feminine disapproval. But we're your co-workers, not your wives.
In her darkest hours, Diana, Princess of Wales, could have used a friend like Empress Elisabeth of Austria. The two lived similar lives, a century apart.
Constant exercise can keep the body trim and taut, but the face is another thing.
I've worked on over twenty TV staffs, and nine out of ten male colleagues are wonderful, inclusive, and professional. Still, there's usually one guy - the Tenth Man - who turns a fun job into a dental appointment.
Once, after a long week, I felt so insecure that I decided to make a list of people who thought I was funny even if I didn't think I was. At the top of the list, I wrote, 'Garry Shandling.' His early praise protected me like a comedy-writer version of Harry Potter's scar.
I loved working on 'Murphy Brown,' and I loved working on 'Monk.'
Sensitivity training is a fine idea but isn't taken seriously by those who need it most.
In March 2010, I attended an art opening for Kimberly Brooks's show 'The Stylist Project' in Los Angeles. It was a starry celebration hosted by Dior and 'Vanity Fair' to benefit P.S. Arts. But even as fun-to-gape-at actresses like Christina Hendricks arrived, I couldn't take my eyes off the oil portraits.
I'm such an admirer of Wendy Davis.
Broad City's first season is full of moments that are insane... and yet make total sense.
For me, TV had always been a medium for entertainment.
One of the greatest benefits to come out of 'Lean In' was convincing women to help and support other women - not out of this sense of duty and that you'd be condemned to hell forever if you didn't, but because it will make all your lives better.
One of the most rebellious things a woman can do is allow people to think she's mean.
There have been many great newspapermen, but to my mind, only two have achieved immortality: Pulitzer for his endowment and William Randolph Hearst for his castle.
I learned not to get too happy about good news or too distraught about bad.
You don't have to let a bad experience stop you from doing what you want to do.
When I write, I feel like an optometrist, constantly flipping between lenses and asking, 'Is this better? Is this?' Slowly, the work comes into focus.
Early on in my career, I was often the only woman in the room, writing for shows like 'Late Night with David Letterman,' 'The Simpsons,' 'Newhart,' and 'Coach,' and sometimes I'd feel like I didn't belong.
Feminists cried, 'Sexism!' when New York Senator Hillary Clinton was judged not by the content of her character but by the color of her pantsuits.
There have always been women who were successful against the odds. Now we need to change the odds so more women can be successful.
I think it's an uphill battle in every field. You hear late-night comedy is hard on women. And then you hear investment banking is hard on women. And tech is hard on women. And then you start digging, and you learn philosophy departments are hard on women!
My criticisms of late-night TV blew up some old friendships and sparked some new ones.
When blue-eyed Donald Trump married hazel-eyed Ivana Zelnickova, he probably figured his broad-shouldered DNA would dominate her girly alleles. But genetics played a cruel trick on Trump: Of the couple's three children, only the youngest, Eric, wound up with his father's fishy blue eyes.
I think I'm funnier in my writing than in person.
Like leggings, comedies created by women came into vogue in the late 1980s, exploded in the early '90s, went mainstream in the mid-'90s, and were shoved into the back of the closet around 1997.
I have a husband who didn't just resign himself to staying home but was happy to be the primary parent.
I realize that 'hire qualified women!' is the sort of outraged demand that's often met with a sigh. No one disagrees, and yet gender inequality in high-paying positions extends into all professions.
I was ahead of the gender curve, but I wasn't ahead of the intersectionality curve, and I get it now. It's important to me.
I fantasize about the networks making a rule that each show's writing staff needs to reflect the gender and racial makeup of its audience.
The vocabulary of my cynical world doesn't allow me to explain the success of 'Lean In.'
Arts are a luxury, proof that a civilization has risen above 'politics and war.'
When you start a memoir, you think, 'I'm going to blast all the people who were mean to me.' And then you start writing, and you go, actually, it's so much more fun to say nice things about people who were kind and generous to you.
I'm both an insider and an outsider.
I've been speaking out about harassment and gender disparity for years.
Hated 'The Imitation Game.' Totally inaccurate. A gay man with a messy room? Don't buy it.
The more successful you are as a man, the more you're liked. And the more successful you are as a woman, the more you're disliked.
Blondness is a core Trump-family value: Both Donald Jr. and Eric got the memo and married blondes.
I basically lived like a guy for, certainly, the first decade of my career, and I just wanted to blend in.
People say, 'Dress for the job you want,' and since I wanted a job that guys had, I dressed like a guy.
Trump Tower is no ordinary property: It is the jewel in Donald Trump's brass crown.
We have so many great memoirs from women in front of the camera, from Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling, Amy Poehler, and Amy Schumer.
I traveled to Israel in a small party assembled by Marty Peretz, the editor-in-chief of 'The New Republic.' Other guests included Senator Al Gore and his wife, Tipper. Like every tourist group, we climbed Masada, floated in the Dead Sea, and visited a kibbutz.
For thirty years, I've been hearing that it's getting better for women. And until I see statistical proof over enough years that that's true, I won't believe it.
I was the second female writer ever hired at 'Late Night.' When I applied for the job in 1988, I had no way of knowing how much the odds were stacked against me.
An ocean of ink - real and virtual - has been spilled critiquing the appearance of female politicians.
The creative process is often wrapped up in bottomless anxiety, and when the world applauds the product of that process, it soothes the anxiety. Briefly. Then the anxiety returns and even intensifies.
In Hollywood, you kind of trick yourself into feeling like you have impact.
I'm on the board of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, which is run by Dr. Stacy Smith - she conceived of the inclusion rider. What I love about the inclusion rider is it uses the fact that Hollywood is based on hierarchies, and it knows that these key players have persuasive power.
