Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The fact that we live in a world where black people have to strategize so they're not brutalized by police is insane.
I think it was Fran Lebowitz who said that there are no writing prodigies. You have to have something to write about.
There always seemed to be a place for God and, to me, it seemed like God was a place in the unknown side of the ledger.
My parents are from the Midwest. They're from Evanston, Illinois. They moved out to Los Angeles right before I was born.
I don't have that kind of Southern experience of the fire-and-brimstone preacher type of thing. Certainly not in my comedy.
I just feel it's important to make sure that behind the scenes is as filled with diverse voices as in front of the scene is.
Even though you're in charge you're not completely in ownership. You know, the audience takes a huge ownership of your show.
I've pitched many things that have not gone, but every year, I'm in that pilot game like a lot of other writers in Hollywood.
As long as you say I'm the guy who's real about it, I have no problem being the person who people look to to talk about race.
There's something about a new family moving into the White House that's kind of interesting, even if you didn't vote for them.
You never know in TV - sometimes you're on at the wrong time at the wrong place. Sometimes you don't get a chance to catch on.
We will see about Obama's legacy. I still think the historical nature of his candidacy will be the biggest part of his legacy.
It's really not my thing to go after what comedians are doing. Because I always feel like we're jesters at the end of the day.
You never want to defend a joke. People get to choose whether or not to laugh and whether or not they think something is funny.
Many times, when you do what I do or work in journalism in general, people try to not explicitly present their opinions on topics.
It's a challenge to do satire when the thing you're satirizing is almost beyond satire, but I think that's a challenge for everybody.
I think the term 'fair reporting' is overused when it comes to journalism. I think saying they want to report evenly is more accurate.
The business part of it can be very vexing. You always have to keep certain metrics and everything. Because all I can do is make a good show.
Some things are so tragic that you don't know what's funny in it, and some things are so ridiculous you don't know if it's worth talking about it.
I always said I'm not disappointed with Obama because I voted for him because he was black, and as long as he kept being black, I was a happy man.
I was taught from a very early age that I had to work twice as hard to get half as much. That was the world I grew up in - a very strong work ethic.
When I was a kid, there was kind of a given that there were some really bad, racist police out there. That's just what America was like when I was a kid.
All writers have a love-hate relationship with writing. Performing is fun, too, but I wouldn't say it's my favorite. But the most fulfilling is producing.
When you're in the eye of the hurricane, you're making the show - you just want the show to be good, you want it to be appreciated and those types of things.
Hollywood wanted a certain type of comic - that Def Jam comedy style of comic that was very loud, very brash, very much from the ghetto, had that sensibility.
One of the missions of 'The Nightly Show' was to have a conversation with America in a sense, and talk about the things that people didn't want to talk about it.
If you look at somebody like Sam Bee, she got to create her own thing without any expectations that there was a show there. That was probably liberating for them.
Whenever I did sitcoms, that always happened on your show. Once the show was on the air, it takes on a life of its own. It develops, and it becomes something else.
It was tough when people would say, "Aren't you so excited?" about the new show and I couldn't really say, "Yes, well, I'm going through a divorce right now, too."
Remember, MTV would only show white videos for a long time. Can you imagine that? That was the '80s when that happened. It's hard to even think of that now, you know?
My father was in law enforcement growing up. He was a probation officer. And I've always understood the point of view of the peace officer, you know, because of my dad.
It almost seems like God is transforming into just a strictly spiritual advisor, a personal-transformation type of figure more than an explainer of the world, you know?
I've always been sort of entrepreneurial. ... I felt that I needed to learn how to write and produce so I could write my own thing and not worry about Hollywood finding me.
I don’t want to slam somebody else’s religion. I mean as a Catholic, we’re basically cannibals: We eat Jesus every Sunday, you know? So who am I to say your religion is creepy?
The first show I worked on was 'In Living Color.' I think 'The Daily Show' was the culmination of having that point of view - being able to look at this third rail in our society.
I like 'The Nightly Show.' People ask me what it is, and I say, 'If you're watching 'The Daily Show,' and it feels like it's getting a little darker, you're probably watching 'The Nightly Show.''
I really love having conversations and deconstructing things. I don't mind not having a laugh every second. Sometimes things deserve a little more discussion, and then you can have some fun after that.
When most people become president, even if you disagree with their ideology, you can still agree that they would have the competence to run something... With Trump, I do not have the confidence of that at all.
We, Catholics, share many of the moral guidelines of Mormons, the difference is you guys take it seriously. When the church says something we don't agree with we say, "Oh don't be so crazy." We just laugh it off.
I do believe that the Mormon Church is at kind of an awakening, in two different ways: More people are becoming aware of it, and it's becoming a force to be reckoned with. There's a lot of Mormon converts globally.
Any voting group has an interest that they want from politicians. That's why politicians have to talk to different people. But to reduce the black interest to free stuff is so insulting. It just makes me apoplectic.
When you have somebody like a Donald Trump - he made no bones about trying to disprove Barack Obama's Americanism in trying to make him out to be some foreigner that was born in Kenya. I thought that to be very racist.
It was the Cosby issue that made me realize how much I really cared about women's issues and how much I realize it's important for me to be an advocate for issues that aren't necessarily my own, to be an ally for issues.
A lot of my family on both sides have worked in education and nursing, and my grandmother was a nurse; my sister is a nurse, and her - my other sister's daughter is going into nursing. There's a lot of that in the family.
I'm actually a big fan of having all the different types of voices on television. I think it gives people a nice little buffet that they can just pick and choose how they want to get their news and entertainment, I guess.
The thing that's worked for me is having as much of a connection to the material as possible. And sometimes the material requires a more straightforward approach, and sometimes it requires a little more silliness, you know?
My joke is that three black people watch 'The Daily Show' at any given time. So if I'm watching it, that counts, and there's only two left. It's a silly joke, but you know, different types of comedy reach different cultures.
I try to impart this when people say they want to be a writer and they want to go into show biz. I say, "Well, have you taken any courses? You can't just have a passion for it; you have to prepare yourself for a life of it."
I don't have that kind of Southern experience, of the fire-and-brimstone preacher type of thing. Certainly not in my comedy. I come more from the guilt-ridden, neurotic type of [ - ] I have more in common with the Jewish brand of comedy.
I'd rather go after the people who are the guardians or what we're doing - the news people and the politicians and that sort of thing. I always feel like those should be my targets, not really entertainers. That's just my personal opinion.