Michael Schur — Lessons from "The Office" and SNL, Moral Philosophy, Storytelling, and More

Infinite Jest

David Foster Wallace

“february of 1996 i am at the end of my junior year in college and infinite just comes out”— Michael Schur

Motherless Brooklyn

Edward Norton (inferred)

“i was thinking of motherless brooklyn and what edward norton did with that”— Tim Ferriss

The Office (UK)

Ricky Gervais (inferred)

“i the british office it was my i found it to be maybe the greatest comedy that had ever been made i thought it was a work of pure genius”— Michael Schur

Pnin

Vladimir Nabokov

“i have a first edition copy of penin by vladimir nabakov because i really love that book but now i have to get all of his books”— Michael Schur

Monty Python's Flying Circus

“i loved monty python growing up and one of the best things about monty python is that all of the characters in their sketches have bananas names”— Michael Schur

A Brief History of Time

Stephen Hawking (inferred)

“you would love the book to do for moral philosophy what a brief history of time did for astrophysics”— Tim Ferriss

Death

Todd May

“he wrote a book called death a great book it's very short it's like maybe a hundred pages and easily readable”— Michael Schur

Saturday Night Live

Lorne Michaels (inferred)

“his first tv writing job was at saturday night live where he spent seven seasons including three as the producer of weekend update”— Tim Ferriss

Animal House

Doug Kenney (inferred)

“doug kenny wrote animal house and and um and he was on the lampoon”— Michael Schur

Billy Budd

Herman Melville (inferred)

“pick like a dh lawrence novel or a henry james novel or some other or you know billy budd or something”— Michael Schur

Mare of Easttown

“a thing that's very commonplace now which is a sort of you know like mayor of east town was like this like a sort of six or seven hour mini series”— Michael Schur

Black Mirror

“it's almost it's almost a little black mirrory if you've seen that show where he's imagining it”— Michael Schur

Coupling

“my wife had written for another show called coupling that was an adaptation of a british sitcom that hadn't worked”— Michael Schur

The Sopranos

David Chase (inferred)

“this has been true probably since roughly speaking the sopranos came on board and suddenly the main character of the biggest show on tv was a sociopathic mobster”— Michael Schur

iPod (video)

Apple (inferred)

“he had bought ryan a video ipod so even though it's a classic michael scott thing because there was a 25 limit”— Michael Schur

Moby-Dick

Herman Melville (inferred)

“the rarest book i have is i have a first edition copy of moby dick that is in incredibly good shape it's really really a rare copy”— Michael Schur

Lost

“we didn't even get to the specific episodes of tv shows that you re-watch like the constant from lost or the fly from breaking bad”— Tim Ferriss

Breaking Bad

“the constant from lost or the fly from breaking bad maybe another conversation”— Tim Ferriss