“Sometimes, not knowing what you’re doing allows you to do things you never knew you could do.”
― Nell Scovell
“I’m a little sad that they actually came up with the metaphor of waves for feminism. By definition, a wave goes in, and it comes out. I would really like it to be a tsunami that creates a flood that forever changes the landscape.”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“When threatened, the nervous system sometimes goes into a ‘freeze response.’ You assess the risk and determine that fight or flight doesn’t help you. Staying put does.”
― Nell Scovell
“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!”
― Nell Scovell
“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
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“Studies do show that in hierarchical structures, you do get more harassment. There’s more power concentrated at the top, which means there’s more abuse of power concentrated at the top. And every TV show is very much a hierarchy.”
― Nell Scovell
“Jenny McCarthy has used her celebrity and sex appeal to attract attention to autism. And while no one questions McCarthy’s determination and passion, many scientists have debunked her anti-vaccine message and her claims that a gluten-free diet can provide a cure.”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“If women who don’t help women get a special circle in hell, I think women who do help women should get a special cloud in heaven.”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“At 26, I was single, living in Manhattan, and working as a journalist at ‘Vanity Fair.’ I was Carrie Bradshaw… in sensible shoes.”
― Nell Scovell
“Even when powerful men stumble, they inspire fear.”
― Nell Scovell
“My criticisms of late-night TV blew up some old friendships and sparked some new ones.”
― Nell Scovell
“Hated ‘The Imitation Game.’ Totally inaccurate. A gay man with a messy room? Don’t buy it.”
― Nell Scovell
“By June 1990, I’d racked up ‘written by’ credits on both ‘Newhart’ and ‘The Simpsons.’”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“My first joke that ever aired on ‘Late Night’ was for a list of ‘Top 10 Least Popular Summer Camps.’ My contribution – ‘Camp Tick in beautiful Lyme, Connecticut’ – squeaked in at No. 10. Like a trip to Camp Tick, my time at ‘Late Night’ faded into memory like a short session at a dicey summer camp.”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“An executive producer with an all-male writing staff once inadvertently revealed his deep, dark fear. While discussing a full-time position for me, he mused out loud, ‘I wonder if having a woman in the room will change everything.’ Of course, what he really meant was: ‘I wonder if having a woman in the room will change me.’”
― Nell Scovell
“Arts are a luxury, proof that a civilization has risen above ‘politics and war.’”
― Nell Scovell
“The Kennedy Center Honors reflects our humanity and higher purpose. We are a great nation, in part, because we value culture.”
― Nell Scovell
“Smash together the Grammys, Oscars, Emmys, and Tonys, and you get the Green Room at the Kennedy Center Honors.”
― Nell Scovell
“Together, we must all remember that one of the most effective responses to hate speech is more speech.”
― Nell Scovell
“Garry Shandling’s stand-up specials were masterpieces of tightly crafted stories that delivered both hard jokes and hard truths. He was neurotic and self-deprecating, and his observations on life cut deep.”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“Albert Brooks. Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Larry David. The best comedic actors play broad and real simultaneously, coming across as both larger than life and all too human.”
― Nell Scovell
“Broad City’s first season is full of moments that are insane… and yet make total sense.”
― Nell Scovell
“One of the most rebellious things a woman can do is allow people to think she’s mean.”
― Nell Scovell
“Moms Mabley blazed a path for female stand-ups in a housecoat and floppy hat. Phyllis Diller worked equally hard to make herself unattractive to men and non-threatening to women.”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“It’s notoriously difficult to get actors to go on record speaking about other actors. Such requests are usually met with terse replies from publicists explaining that their clients are on set and too busy to reply.”
― Nell Scovell
“For me, TV had always been a medium for entertainment.”
― Nell Scovell
“Constant exercise can keep the body trim and taut, but the face is another thing.”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“Given the long history of global anti-Semitism and continued calls for the destruction of Israel, it’s tough to be a Jew.”
― Nell Scovell
“The Pulitzer Prize was established when Joseph Pulitzer died in 1911, leaving a bequest to create the eponymous award. An immigrant from Hungary, Pulitzer struck it rich by combining the ‘St. Louis Post’ and the ‘St. Louis Dispatch’ to make the – wait for it – ‘St. Louis Post-Dispatch.’”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“Retaining a child-like sense of wonder is a boon for creative types like Steven Spielberg and J. K. Rowling.”
― Nell Scovell
“An ocean of ink – real and virtual – has been spilled critiquing the appearance of female politicians.”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“Howard Dean is no longer the brilliant mastermind of the Fifty State Strategy that enabled the Democrats to storm the White House and Congress. He’s the idiot wearing an ugly sweatshirt.”
― Nell Scovell
“The focus on male politicians extends beyond clothes, legs, and pretty faces. It’s hard to find an article about former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich that doesn’t mention his mop.”
― Nell Scovell
“Like Lindsay Lohan and Lauren Conrad, Barack Obama is addicted to his BlackBerry.”
― Nell Scovell
“In TV, you look to make characters consistent, but in real life, we’re not consistent. Sometimes we’re brave, and sometimes we’re not. Sometimes we’re very aggressive, and sometimes we back right down.”
― Nell Scovell
“The first Emmys I went to was in 1990 when the five nominees for best comedy were ‘Designing Women,’ ‘Golden Girls,’ ‘Murphy Brown,’ ‘Cheers,’ ‘Wonder Years.’ Three and a half were created by women.”
― Nell Scovell
“I basically lived like a guy for, certainly, the first decade of my career, and I just wanted to blend in.”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“We have so many great memoirs from women in front of the camera, from Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling, Amy Poehler, and Amy Schumer.”
― Nell Scovell
“You want a diverse writers’ room, not because it’s the fair thing to do or the right thing to do, but because it’s the best thing to do for your show. I’ve seen that to be true.”
― Nell Scovell
“People say, ‘Dress for the job you want,’ and since I wanted a job that guys had, I dressed like a guy.”
― Nell Scovell
“I think empathy is undervalued in a lot of these comedy writers’ rooms.”
― Nell Scovell
“The average career span for a TV writer is 11 years. The only other thing I could find that had the same career span was a police dog.”
― Nell Scovell
“In Hollywood, you kind of trick yourself into feeling like you have impact.”
― Nell Scovell
“The vocabulary of my cynical world doesn’t allow me to explain the success of ‘Lean In.’”
― Nell Scovell
“I think I’m funnier in my writing than in person.”
― Nell Scovell
“Unfortunately, my system for tracking down funny female writers isn’t methodical. It’s mainly based on word-of-mouth, which can cast a limited net.”
― Nell Scovell
“Moral licensing comes into play when people rely on past behavior to dismiss current prejudiced behavior. This is better known as the ‘Some of my best friends are…’ defense.”
― Nell Scovell
“Everyone – male and female – is biased. But no one wants to admit it, so our brains search for examples that disprove the accusation.”
― Nell Scovell
“I’ve been speaking out about harassment and gender disparity for years.”
― Nell Scovell
“One of the great things about being in entertainment is you have access to the media. People pay attention to you.”
― Nell Scovell
“I’m both an insider and an outsider.”
― Nell Scovell
“I loved working on ‘Murphy Brown,’ and I loved working on ‘Monk.’”
― Nell Scovell
“There’s this perception that there’s a pipeline problem for women and people of color. I don’t buy into that. I think we have a broken doorbell problem, and there are plenty of women and people of color standing at the doorstep trying to get in the door, and nobody’s opening it.”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“Writing for TV made way more sense than writing for magazines. And by sense, I mean money.”
― Nell Scovell
“I have a husband who didn’t just resign himself to staying home but was happy to be the primary parent.”
― Nell Scovell
“I think, in all fields, there’s this motherhood pay penalty where, the second you become a mother – and this is true whether you give birth or adopt – you’re perceived to not be as committed to your job. Whereas men are perceived as breadwinners who now need more money and promotions because they’re fathers.”
― Nell Scovell
“You don’t have to let a bad experience stop you from doing what you want to do.”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“There have always been women who were successful against the odds. Now we need to change the odds so more women can be successful.”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“Hollywood is built on relationships, and the way you keep relationships is by playing nice.”
― Nell Scovell
“The desire to keep doing what we love supersedes the desire to penalize bad behavior.”
― Nell Scovell
“Blondness is a core Trump-family value: Both Donald Jr. and Eric got the memo and married blondes.”
― Nell Scovell
“Trump Tower is no ordinary property: It is the jewel in Donald Trump’s brass crown.”
― Nell Scovell
“In the writers’ room, I know the difference when someone brushes up against me and makes a sexist crack and when they’ve stepped over the line and made me feel uncomfortable and unsafe.”
― Nell Scovell
“I’d like to see David Letterman adopt the inclusion rider on his Netflix show.”
― Nell Scovell
“Sensitivity training is a fine idea but isn’t taken seriously by those who need it most.”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“Misogyny – and racism – are ‘hidden in plain sight,’ and the burden of eliminating them should fall on the institutions, not the victims.”
― Nell Scovell
“In over thirty years working in TV and movies, I’ve never had an exit interview or contributed to a 360 assessment.”
― Nell Scovell
“If I were to write a sequel to ‘Lean In’ for men, I would call it ‘Make Room.’”
― Nell Scovell
“Give me a rock, and I will roll it.”
― Nell Scovell
“Hollywood is hard on everyone, but it really is harder on women and people of color.”
― Nell Scovell
“Making someone laugh is the simplest, most basic positive human connection.”
― Nell Scovell
“To be happy about the fall of one powerful man is to know there are another 10 that need to follow.”
― Nell Scovell
“I turned 40, and things started to go south.”
― Nell Scovell
“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.”
― Nell Scovell
“Writing is not what you start. It’s not even what you finish. It’s what you start, finish, and put out there for the world to see.”
― Nell Scovell
“I learned not to get too happy about good news or too distraught about bad.”
― Nell Scovell
“I’m such an admirer of Wendy Davis.”
― Nell Scovell
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