Barack Obama knows that to create an economy built to last we need to focus on middle-class families. Families who stay up on Sunday nights pacing the floor like my dad did while their children tucked in bed dream big dreams. Families who aren't sure what Monday morning will bring but who believe our nation's best days are still ahead.

I couldn't walk down any street in Britain without being laughed at. It was a nightmare. My children were devastated because their dad was a figure of ridicule.

When I was little we had a Golden Book that had all these Disney characters in one portrait on the first page. My dad used to read from it every night. We'd play this game of find Pluto or find Donald Duck. He'd read us stories and do all the voices. Those are great memories.

I wanted to be a skinny little ballerina but I was a voluptuous little Italian girl whose dad had meatballs on the table every night.

I think that people need to have the courage of their convictions and not be trying to fool people into thinking that they've changed overnight.

The cool thing about writing is that there is really never a typical day. Sometimes I get a rhythm going and head off to work every morning and come home at night. Sometimes I'll write for two days straight and then be utterly blank for the next two.

A couple days ago I saw a lot of people tweeting 'Oh it's so cool 'Home' is being used in the Olympics!' We don't really get to watch much TV man with the concerts every night but I wish I could have seen it. I really just found out through Twitter and my management texting me. I thought it was really awesome.

I just saw the movie for the first time in its entirely last night. It's really cool when you're in with an audience that's so tuned in and plugged in to what's going on.

What we do every night is we change out the set list as much as we can to make sure that (fans can) go home and tell their friends they experienced something unique and cool.

I joined MySpace in September 2003. At that time no one was on there at all. I felt like a loser while all the cool kids were at some other school. So I mass e-mailed between 30 000 and 50 000 people and told them to come over. Everybody joined overnight.

You want hot days to get your fruit ripe but then you want it to cool off nicely at night so that the grapes stay on the vine longer and develop complexity.

Don't get me wrong magic is cool. But a nervous mother singing to her child at night while something moves quietly through the dark outside her house? That's a story. Handled properly it's more dramatic than any apocalypse or goblin army could ever be.

The truth is we have this idea that late night is about creativity and being cool but that's not our job. Our job is to get as many people watching the commercials in between our show. That's the reality of it.

I used to lie between cool clean sheets at night after I'd had a bath after I had washed my hair and scrubbed my knuckles and finger-nails and teeth. Then I could lie quite still in the dark with my face to the window with the trees in it and talk to God.

You know you grow up with the image of John Travolta being super cool - 'Saturday Night Fever ' Brian De Palma handsome young god... he in reality is a very silly man. And I mean that in a good way. He'll walk around the set talking in little weird voices making people laugh.

Most of the time you're too busy to think about it. But every now and then you say 'I work at 'Saturday Night Live ' and that is so cool.

It's cool to go to a place that has posters up and it's one night only. It feels more special.

An orange on the table your dress on the rug and you in my bed sweet present of the present cool of night warmth of my life.

Every night I fell asleep to a different Beatles album. So I'm very familiar with the Beatles Ringo was my favorite Beatle until I grew up and then changed. I made the switch over to George Harrison just in time to regain my cool.

I once sang 'Summer Nights ' from 'Grease ' at a bar in Melbourne with John Travolta who's a good friend of mine. He looked cool singing the part of Danny - sitting in an armchair smoking a cigar - while I got stuck playing Sandy.

What people don't understand is joining a gang ain't bad it's cool it's fine. When you in the hood joining a gang it's cool because all your friends are in the gang all your family's in the gang. We're not just killing people every night we're just hanging out having a good time.

Computers are scary. They're nightmares to fix lose our stuff and on occasion they crash producing the blue screen of death. Steve Jobs knew this. He knew that computers were bulky and hernia-inducing and Darth Vader black. He understood the value of declarative design.

I'm really anti-option so computers have been my nightmare with recording. I don't want endless tracks I want less tracks. I want decisions to be made.

I learned never to empty the well of my writing but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.