Some celebrities seem at odds with their public personas, but Judd Apatow is exactly like you would expect. Clad in a t-shirt and jeans, the man behind "Knocked Up," "Funny People," and "Superbad" sounded like a grown-up version of his male lead characters: goofy but sharp,  sincere, extremely good-natured and not afraid of a little bathroom humor. The Bay Citizen met with him on the eve of his sold-out City Arts and Lecture event with Dave Eggers, in promotion of the McSweeney's book (proceeds go to 826 Valencia)  that he edited called "I Found This Funny."

It's a collection of work that is not actually all humor pieces: Apatow threw short stories by figures such as James Agee and Carson McCullers into the mix, alongside work by "Freaks and Geeks" co-creator Paul Feig, a New Yorker profile of comedian Bill Hicks, a failed pilot co-written by Conan O'Brian and some very naughty Icelandic drawings. It is, he says, the book he wished someone else would have put together for him — "I love books that tell you, you would like this."

Here are some other bits of wisdom from The Bay Citizen's half-hour with Apatow.

On his book selections: "Mainly, I wanted my friend's names next to names like Hemingway...We were trying to elevate ourselves."

On his charity work: "I help out raising money for 826 LA. Last year, we did a big benefit that was a parody of benefits. We paid tribute to Seth Rogen for the charity work he had not done yet. and had all these big stars paying tribute to him. It was $10,000 a table but we served Kentucky Fried Chicken and Red Bull." 

On comedic motivation: "The need for approval overpowers fear of disapproval. Wanting that approval wins that war...That's a little bit of what 'Funny People' was about. People who are very unsocial talking to large crowds but not indviduals."

On new projects, including the upcoming "Bridesmaids," starring Kristen Wiig: "That's a real female gang comedy which was fun. I've been working with Kristen Wiig since 'Knocked Up to get that together, so that'd be since 1997...I'm producing a pilot for Lena Dunham who has a film called 'Tiny Furniture' coming out that she wrote, directed and starred in. She made this film for $45,000 when she was 24 years old... It's the first time I've attempted to do anything for television since 'Freaks and Geeks' and 'Undeclared.' but she's so talented that I thought, yeah, I'd jump back in to help her out."

On being a ladies man: "I've never thought of it like I'm not working with women. because I've done some great work with my wife Leslie (Mann), Catherine Keener, Jane Lynch and Elizabeth Banks —and Charlene Yi — so we've broken a lot of people. I've worked with alot of people who are hilarious and do interesting stuff, although a lot of it has been from a guy's perspective. But I'm a guy, so things to go that way."

On game shows: "Two years of work would disappear for a game show that would appear for two weeks. That was the time when the (Who Wants to be a) Millionaire show was really popular, so everyone was like, we need a game show three times a week. That trend is over but lasted long enough to take us down."

On meeting President Obama: "He had seen 'Funny People.' He said, 'We loved it! We love depressing movies!' I wanted to say, well, that's not really what I was going for, but glad you enjoyed it."