The nice thing about anger is that, as an emotion, it's strong enough to unplug me from the comedian's mind for a minute and just be a frustrated member of the citizenry.

I'm not a confrontational person or comedian. I think we can explore more things if one of us is not fighting with the other. I take it easy. But I do like comedians who are very different from myself: I love dry comics with deadpan one-liners. I look on and think, 'That's amazing; why didn't I think of that?'

Dick Van Dyke was my first idol. He's an amazing physical comedian, like a classic clown, but also very smart and not afraid to show vulnerability.

At one point when I was very young, when I was first starting out, I thought, 'Well, one day I'll be able to put all the music away and become a real comedian.' But then I realized there are amazing musical comedians out there, that musical comedy is probably something I'll always want to pursue.

When you battle with your conscience and lose, you win. -Henny Youngman, comedian and violinist (1906-1998)

Comedians are people who embarrass themselves in style.

You are not a hot mess or hopeless cause just because you're scared or out of sorts. We cannot hang up on the call for courage that speed dials us every day. If facing the simultaneous brokenness and possibility of living were easy, we wouldn't need therapists, besties, teachers, scientists, coaches, healers, artists, and comedians nudging us to critically think, take agency, be more self-compassionate, see our humanity, and stop taking ourselves and our so-called "failures" so seriously. "Failure" is how we learn and grow. Community and solidarity are how we heal.

God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh.

I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.

I, myself, have killed six people. All random, all undetected, no way to trace them to me. And, let me tell you, there's nothin' like it. It's a great feeling. Yeah, I know, you're thinking. 'Aw, he's a comedian. He's just sayin' that stuff.' Good. That's exactly what I want you to think.

The truth is I had always wanted to be a comedian but I really didn't have that kind of personality and it's a terrifying thing to say.

I'm a comedian for God's sake. Viewers shouldn't trust me. And you know what? They're hip enough to know they shouldn't trust me. I'm just doing stand-up comedy.

I took an acting class. After the first day the teacher quit so they said take another. When I saw 'How to be a Stand-up Comedian ' it resonated. I realized I'd rather make 200 people laugh than make one person cry.

I would probably be a teacher if I weren't a comedian.

When I started you didn't make a lot of money by being a comedian. You didn't get a lot of respect.

I wanted to be in Jim Carrey comedy movies before I met him. I wanted to be a comedian on Stage 19 yukking it up.

I wanted to make a living but I really was not interested in money at all. I was interested in being a great comedian.

My mom is two people to me. She's my mom number one and then she's this lady most comedians know as being a legendary owner of a nightclub that's responsible for starting a lot of heavy careers.

I used to have a theory actually that if you've had a good childhood a good marriage and a little bit of money in the bank you're going to make a lousy comedian.

To my knowledge I was the first guy really to do what I do. And then later on different comedians started trying doing it.

I thought they may have presumed too much knowledge of certain things for people who are not comedians. Like Montreal. A comic understands what it is and its importance but someone else may not know about it.

When I see a good singer I get teary-eyed. Part of it is jealousy because all comedians are frustrated rock stars. That's a fact.

I think humor is important for all of us and a great comedian is a great treasure.

Every time I've done comedy in like traditional comedy clubs there's always these comedians that do really well with audiences but that the other comedians hate because they're just you know doing kind of cheap stuff like dancing around or doing like very kind of base sex humor a lot and stuff like that.