You must realize that honorary degrees are given generally to people whose SAT scores were too low to get them into schools the regular way. As a matter of fact, it was my SAT scores that led me into my present vocation in life, comedy.

Simon explains:

Simon chose not to write the screenplay for his first film adaptation Come Blow Your Horn preferring to focus on his playwriting. I wanted to tell a story about real people. In The Gingerbread Lady he combines comedy with tragedy; Rumors (1988) was a full-length farce; in Jake's Women and Brighton Beach Memoirs he uses dramatic narration; in The Good Doctor he created a “pastiche of sketches” around various stories by Chekhov; and Fools (1981) was written as a fairy-tale romance similar to stories by Sholem Aleichem.

Simon's facility with dialogue gives his stories a rare blend of realism humor and seriousness which audiences find easy to identify with. ” His style ranged from romantic comedy to farce to more serious dramatic comedy. He has received more Oscar and Tony nominations than any other writer.