From Barack Obama to Kristen Wiig, this is what guests on Jerry Seinfeld's 'Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee' have to say about failure, career choices - and bees

"When I was a kid, I always thought the plumber wanted to be a plumber. I thought the guy that drives the truck loves driving the truck, that's why he's doing it."

On a 1990 appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Seinfeld recalled the childhood moment he realized he was destined to be a comedian. While enjoying some milk and cookies with a friend, he made the pal laugh so hard that milk came streaming out of his mouth — and right into Jerry's face.

"You know the butterflies, when you get the butterflies? I always say that the things you remember in life are the things that happen right after you had butterflies. So you should never avoid the butterflies, because those are the memory makers."

Regan, known for his stand-up about daily life (and UPS), must have gotten butterflies just before taking the stage.

"When I first started, I decided it was important to fake confidence. Because I thought it was important that [the audience] sensed I believed. If I was the slightest bit nervous about something, they could smell it, and then they would become judges. But if I was confident, it's like 'I don't care what you think.' That worked."

It's funny to look back at Martin blowing up balloon animals onstage and think that the guy was faking his confidence. Guess it really did work!

"The bees, the elegance of their societal structure, is, 'This is your job, ok? You get the pollen. You make the honey. You guard the door.' And nobody goes, 'All right, I don't know if I really want to do that.' But no bee says, 'I should be the boss.'"

One of Seinfeld's less critically lauded projects was "Bee Movie," the 2007 digitally animated movie about bees. Despite it being one of the lowest-grossing Dreamworks films to date, it's gained quite the cult following.

Seinfeld: What kind of language do people use —
Obama: English.
Seinfeld: Does [cursing] help with your stress level?
Obama: I curse. I curse.
Seinfeld: 'This rat bastard comes in here…' You blow off a little steam.
Obama: Yeah. Bad stuff, or stupid stuff, is happening constantly, every day. So you have to just be able to make fun of that.

The former president was likely on to something. Researchers have linked swearing to honest behavior, and humor to resilience.

"If I have an idea, it's the driver. The idea says, 'Get in the car,' and I'm like, 'Where am I going?' The idea says, 'I don't know. Don't worry about it. I'm driving.' Then you just get there."

Dave Chappelle is best known for his iconic sketch show, "Chappelle's Show," a prime example of letting the idea be the driver.

"I knew the moment I got comfortable there was the moment I had to leave."

Kristen Wiig stayed on "SNL" for seven seasons, then left in 2012 after starring in the hit comedy "Bridesmaids."

"One of the great activities is skateboarding. To learn to do a skateboard trick, how many times you gotta get something wrong until you get it right … And you hurt yourself and you learn that trick, now you got a life lesson. Whenever I see those skateboard kids, I think, 'Those skateboard kids will be all right.'"

Comedy is a lot like skateboarding. In the same episode, Seinfeld and his guest, Chris Rock, talked about their early days in comedy. Rock said, "I used to go the comedy club and they would not put me on. I'd get there at 7:45. And I would wait until 1:30, 2 in the morning, and not get on."

"There will be a time when I realize that I am no longer as good as I was and things aren't coming together as they should and the quality is going down, and then three years after that I'll quit."

Lorne Michaels knows a bit about finding talent — he cast legends like Chevy Chase, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, and Kristen Wiig for most of the iconic show's 44 seasons.

"Democracy. There's a democracy of body type. Anybody can play... And comedy is a life of failure. Baseball is failure. The best hitters, .300 hitter. What does .300 mean? He gets a hit 30% of the time. He fails seven out of 10 times. And he's a killer. Because he fails seven out of 10 times. That's us! We fail almost all the time. Almost all the time. There's a couple of times we don't, and that's what you see."

Seinfeld has always been obsessed with baseball, even though he never played on an organized team.