1. While studying Wittgenstein in college–which Martin was paying for by doing standup comedy–Martin was wrestling with whether to be a stage performer or an academic philosopher. He soon makes a discovery: “I felt that a career in the irrational world of creativity not only made sense but had moral purpose.” Amen to that. 

2. As he becomes a successful television writer, Martin struggles with the fear that he’ll soon run out of comedic ideas, and therefore write himself out of a job. “I assuaged myself with my own homegrown homily: Comedy is a distortion of what’s happening, and there will always be something happening.” Somehow, this made me feel better about my own (paltry, and so far mostly private) creative writing efforts. 

3. His first love was Stormie Omartian. Yes, that Stormie Omartian.