American Quotes

I was really into classifieds for awhile. I'm a big negotiator. My father owned a car dealership when I was younger... it's just in my blood.

I prefer to work with first-time directors.

I love when people on Twitter give advice.

I like pizza and I like cheeseburgers a lot and I like Chicago food a lot.

I knew I wanted to be an actor for a long time, but I was based out of Chicago and then I went to New York and I did 'The Upright Citizens Brigade' out there. I had a two-man show with a guy named Oliver Ralli who's now in the band Pass Kontrol, which is a big band out of New York.

I had a lot of bad jobs but the one big internship I had is I interned for 'SNL' when I was 21 years old and that was the joke. You intern there and you think man, I'm going to be with the writers and the great comedians. Then you're getting everybody sandwiches and then the doors close and then all

I feel like L.A. is more of a showcase, and Chicago is a pure comedy scene where you're doing comedy for comedy. You're doing comedy actually for the audience that's there.

I did about 10-12 national commercials and then got one line parts in things like 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' and the show 'The Unit.' Got a little part in the movie 'Redbelt' by David Mamet and kept slowly grinding up and then started getting bigger parts in independents and getting noticed by Liz Meriw

I always thought, if you're gonna do TV, you want to play a straight, solid, pillar-of-the-show kind of guy.

First, I wanted to be Chris Farley. When I was growing up, Chris Farley was still on the stages and fun to us. In my house, John Belushi was king. I didn't grow up when he was - I was born in '78 - the reruns of Belushi in 'Animal House,' and knowing he was at Second City, he was viewed as a king in

We're just a bubble in a boiling pot.

Slow down, everyone. You're moving too fast.

It takes a long, hard effort and sustained determination to reduce crime. We will stay the course and we are confident that the numbers will continue to go down.

If it seems like you are playing around and not practicing, that's when you know you really love it.

I made a lot of mistakes out of the ring, but I never made any in it.

My friend told me later he got the chicken pox. I told him I caught politics and never got over it.

It's as simple as something that nobody knows.

Don't let your dreams be dreams.

Our dreams are made of real things, like a shoebox full of photographs.

There are no black film composers doing the likes of Star Wars, doing the likes of E.T., doing the likes of Jurassic Park. There are none, nor will there ever be one. That ain't about to happen!

Sometimes you need to stand with your nose to the window and have a good look at jazz. And I've done that on many occasions.

Midi is my hobby.

I was lucky enough to occasionally break out of that racist situation that prevails in the Hollywood film production community. But it was racist then and it will always be that way. It will never be otherwise.

The first casualty when war comes is truth.

With this first novel, I am just above the foothills, but I see the path to the top, and it is my desire to write compelling stories about everything that I find of interest.

Then I thought I was going to be a photographer. I tried a hand at darkroom technician. I played in a band. It took me quite some time to discover that I wanted to write.

The great thing about being the son of Maya Angelou is that I had the good fortune to grow up around some of the greatest black artists, dancers, singers, musicians, and actors of our time.

It is my desire to be a great writer. I know that I still have a mountain to climb to achieve that.

I hope to be with you as a writer for a very long time, and I hope that you will enjoy reading my work, because readers are the highest form of life on this planet.

My mother asked me what I wanted for my birthday, so I said I wanted to read poetry with her.