[on Robin Williams] Robin and I were great friends, suffering from the same little-known disease, depression. I never could have expected this ending to his life, and to ours with him. I cannot believe this. I am overwhelmed with grief. What a wonderful man/boy, and what a tremendous talent in the most important art of any time - comedy! I loved him.

[re growing up on NYC's Park Avenue] I had to get into fights all the time, because we were at the cusp of Spanish Harlem and they didn't like a crew-cut white kid. They were always chasing me, stealing my wallet. I was sent to the grocery store on Second Avenue by my mother on a Saturday, and these two Spanish kids were walking behind me, and in front of me was a little kid, smaller than me, and he kept punching me in the face the whole way to the grocery store. I came back from the grocery store with a bloody nose, and my mother sent me back for something else! And there they were again. And when we got to the corner, I'd had it. I just took the little kid out, and of course the other two, the big ones, jumped me. I really had a hold on one of them, like a headlock, and the other one yelled, "Hey! No fair! You're choking him!" No fair, he said. What do you mean, no fair? You guys have been kicking the crap out of me! They had these rules. One of those guys stabbed me in the back three times when I was running away. I still have these knife-wound scars.

[on his fight with Bill Murray] Billy Murray and I came to fisticuffs, but we never really ended up hitting each other. We tried, but Belushi got in the middle and we both ended up hitting John. And if anybody deserved to be slapped in the forehead it was John, for instigating it all.

[on leaving Saturday Night Live (1975)] It has been portrayed over the years as there being "lucrative deals" awaiting me in Hollywood. But if you look at the record, I didn't make a movie for two or three years. There were no lucrative deals awaiting me. I left because I was in love with a girl in L.A. I missed it very much. I should have hung around for years. And I feel bad about it now.

[on his first return to Saturday Night Live (1975)] I'm not sure exactly why or how, but [during that episode] suddenly I got into a fight with Bill Murray. I discovered later it was with the instigation of John Belushi, who apparently was a little bit jealous that I had become the standout guy the first year, when John [felt he] deserved to. And he did; John was our ringer. But television doesn't care too much about ringers who are short and have a beard. Somehow they took to the tall, thin, handsome guy.

[on Community (2009)] It was a big mistake! I saw this pilot script, thought that it was funny, and I went into the room where they were casting and said, "I would love to play this guy." Then they mulled it over. Then they hired me and I just sort of hung around because I have three daughters and a wife, and I figured out I might as well make some bread, every week, so I can take care of them in the way they want.

[on working on Community (2009)] The hours are hideous, and it's still a sitcom on television, which is probably the lowest form of television. That's my feeling about it. I think the reason I have stuck around is because I love these kids, the cast - they are very good. It's not like I am working with the great innovators of all time, but at the same time, they are my friends.

[on his professional regrets] I turned down Forrest Gump (1994), I turned down American Gigolo (1980), there are many films - like Ghostbusters (1984) - that I turned down... the first one I did was Foul Play (1978) with Goldie Hawn, but I turned down Animal House (1978) - I turned that down. So all those I regret only because they made huge amounts of money and I would be very wealthy, but I don't regret working with Goldie, I don't regret the projects that I did do.

You can't observe as much if you're observed by others.

[on John Landis] He's a bit of a bully, to say the least, with the wrong people, the easy shots. He's got a crassness about him. Anybody who can pick on a set decorator or an extra in front of everybody else in a very mean way is lacking something. I would think that an experience like Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) would put some humility into your life. But it didn't.

I guess I look so straight and normal nobody expects me to pick my nose and fall.

Once I got married and had kids, I moved away from romantic roles, because it seemed wrong to have my three-year-old wondering why Daddy was kissing someone else.

On the outcome of impersonating former U.S. President Gerald Ford on Saturday Night Live (1975): "I did hear ultimately from one of Ford's sons that some of the things had hurt his feelings, and that was a shocker to me. But I figured, 'Oh well, he's the President, he can take it. I mean, he has to, he's a public figure.' Of course, now my feelings have been hurt so much, I know exactly what he means."

On his reaction upon hearing of the death of Saturday Night Live (1975) co-star John Belushi): I was so angry I didn't cry for five years.