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Josh Lieb is the former Producer and Show Runner of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. His credits include stints as Executive Producer of NewsRadio and The Daily Show with[…]
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The usually cynical comedy writer Josh Lieb gets sentimental about love.

Question: What is love?

Josh Lieb: What is love? I think you’re gonna – I’m not sure what answer you’re going to get today and I think that answer is going to change whatever day you ask me. I’m feeling – I’ve got a new baby, I’ve got a wife I love, so I’m going to be fairly non-cynical today. I could say it was some weird narcissistic reflection of the qualities we see in ourselves in the other person. I might love my baby because he looks like me. But I don’t – I don’t know, I’m not sure if there is actually a think called ‘love.’ I am not necessarily a doubter in the spiritual realm, but I don’t think there is a particular quantifiable thing called love and I don’t even think there is necessarily a brain chemical called love. I think its attachment. It’s a need. Love is needing someone in order to feel complete. Yeah, it’s attachment. Say it’s an addiction in a way, but your life would not be your life without that person in it. And when you lose that person, you have to make a tremendous adjustment. Yeah, it’s a form of addiction, but there’s no dividing line necessarily between love and life, or love and straight affection, but I would call it an emotional addiction.

Recorded on:  October 9, 2009


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