On feeling like a speck in the overall, big picture:

“If I think about it too much my mind will explode. We’re all so so tiny in the big picture and it depends on what picture you’re looking at. In the really big picture we’re infinitesimal. That’s why we’re paralyzed, now after doing this movie I can hardly move, because essentially I’m afraid I will be crushing tiny universes wherever I go. So even in your laughter and the saliva that’s coming out of your mouth, you are killing worlds. If there’s one thing that people can take away from this movie, it’s that.”

Carell on his success:

“I owe a lot to Jim [Carrey] frankly for any of my success, because essentially the first movie I was ever in was Bruce Almighty and I never got auditions for movies. It was one of the first I’d ever gotten and I said to Jim about a week or two ago, I remember watching Liar, Liar and thinking that looks like the most fun you could possibly have. Just being on set and at the end, the outtakes, I just thought, ‘man that just looks like a party’ and in my wildest dreams didn’t think I’d be a part of that and then a couple of years later I was.”

Steve Carell on other Dr. Seuss properties he would like to try:

“I don’t know, I’d love to do Green Eggs and Ham I think I could do a lot with it (laughing). It does sound ridiculous even to talk about it doesn’t it? But ultimately you think about, ‘so you’re doing Horton Hears a Who?’, it sounds sort of odd, you’re in the movie version of Horton Hears a Who. Then you see it and you say, ‘of course’, it completely makes sense. So maybe Green Eggs and Ham is a blockbuster of the future, you never know.”

On returning to The Office:

“We go back to work this week, this Thursday is our first day back and the first episode involves a diner party that Michael Scott throws. It’s, I think, maybe the funniest episode of the season, so far. Our table read before the strike was great. In terms of Michael and Jane I would say that storm clouds loom.”

On getting to play an action character in Get Smart:

“It’s all in the trailer, that’s it, there’s no more. It’s incredibly fun, being an action star is all I ever hoped to be. I ultimately knew I would be an action star. It was just fun and silly and again ridiculous that I’m hanging from wires off of buildings, underneath planes, and it was fun, I’d do it again in a second.”