In a recent interview in the New York Times, comedian Louis C.K. turned the questions on interviewer David Itzkoff to tease out the cause of C.K.’s success:

DI: Does it matter that what you’ve achieved, with your online special and your tour can’t be replicated by other performers who don’t have the visibility or fan base that you do?

LCK: Why do you think those people don’t have the same resources that I have, the same visibility or relationship? What’s different between me and them?

DI: You have the platform. You have the level of recognition.

LCK: So why do I have the platform and the recognition?

DI: At this point you’ve put in the time.

LCK: There you go. There’s no way around that. There’s people that say: “It’s not fair. You have all that stuff.” I wasn’t born with it. It was a horrible process to get to this. It took me my whole life.