Page 480:

It was the first time I’d been asked to host, and I jumped at it immediately. I didn’t bring any of my own writers with me; they’ve got plenty. They’re very, very talented people over there who already know their thing, and hopefully I went into it thinking I’d bring a little something to the process and shape it in a way that would give this show a little different flavor than it had the week before. We had a great time doing all that stuff. It’s a very collaborative environment. I really had just a mind-blowing good time.

I thought the process that they used to hone material was really smart. The way the show came into focus makes complete sense. It’s very linear, it’s not arbitrary. There’s obviously politics associated with any organization, especially one that’s been alive for that long. As the host you obviously are a guest, and it’s a different atmosphere. But when you’re around some place for a week, you can pick up what’s what and who’s what and where’s what and that kind of shit.

Page 514-515:

As much as I’d like to think I understand television production and understand what it takes to put on a show, I was absolutely knocked out by how they put that show on, just knocked out. The ability of each fiefdom to know their shit, do their shit, and execute at the level they execute was remarkable ­ really, really impressive to watch. It’s unprecedented, it really is.

You don’t really think about what effect your presence on the show is going to have. The shit comes all so fast, you don’t have time to think about reactions, and if you start thinking about it, about the effect, you’re sunk. All you can think about intuitively is, “That looks good, yeah, that’s funny, I’ll go with that, or that seems a little too didactic.”

You’ve got to be into the thing. If you start thinking like, “Maybe that’ll get picked up by the wire services,” then you’re fucked.

Page 540-541:

Lorne doesn’t have much of a track record, so that’s why it was really hard to trust him that everything was going to be okay, but I though, “Well, I’ll give this kid a shot and see what he can do for me.”

I think the thing that probably strikes me most is, he’s a guy who clearly doesn’t have to work this hard but still does. And you can only attribute that to either he’s insane or he’s still excited about the show, he still enjoys it, he still has passion for it, and he still wants it to be good.