If I had never ventured beyond being a stand-up comic, then I would be sitting in my house today working on my Leonardo DiCaprio impression.

Ability is nothing without opportunity.

People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.

Even though I’ve been putting out bodies of work for years, ‚Beauty Behind the Madness‘ felt like the beginning.

Actor’s life is very long.

If someone has a really great boyfriend or career, I think, it’s cool that happens.

Stand-up comedy is mine: it’s my entity; it’s my brand; I own it. I do it when I want to do it.

Children’s talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.

Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them.

I love that I can tell the truth and have people laugh at it.

Black or white good parts are hard to come by. A good actor with a good opportunity has a shot; without the opportunity it doesn’t matter how good you are.

We believe that if men have the talent to invent new machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to put those men back to work.

Genius, when young, is divine.

I never wanted to stay in one genre; I never wanted to be pigeon-holed or defined as the actor who only worked in one genre. I want to be able to work in all different genres. For me it’s fun, and that’s how I grow as an actor.

Laughter is America’s most important export.

Only one in four jokes ever works, and I still can’t predict what people will laugh at.

I’ve never met a genius. A genius to me is someone who does well at something he hates. Anybody can do well at something he loves – it’s just a question of finding the subject.

Madonna and I are very different. Just saying. We’re very different. I wouldn’t make that comparison at all, and I don’t mean to disrespect Madonna: she’s a nice lady, and she’s had a fantastic, huge career – biggest pop star of all time.

Friends applaud, the comedy is over.

I’m spending a year dead for tax reasons.

I didn’t think it was special to be able to sing.

I’ve always been a singer. I never really decided I was gonna be a singer. It just kind of – I just sung a lot.

I have a definite talent for convincing people to try something new. I am a good salesman. When I’m on form, I can sell anything.

I’m a working-class person, working with class.

If I haven’t any talent for writing books or newspaper articles, well, then I can always write for myself.

The Canteen Boy, the reason you feel bad for him and you can laugh is because he, and I guess a lot of my characters, they don’t notice they’re getting made fun of. So they’ll say something back that’s not that great a quip, but in their mind they won the argument.

My mother is a singer, my sisters all sing, my uncles are incredible singers and guitar players, so it’s just kind of been like my habitat.

Sometimes I wonder why I’m a novelist right now. There is no definite career reason why I became a writer. Something happened, and I became a writer. And now I’m a successful writer.

I have always had a talent for irritating women since I was fourteen.

A person who is gifted sees the essential point and leaves the rest as surplus.

I’ve got a great sense of humor, and if I’m able to say or do something in a movie that people feel like they want to repeat, that’s hugely flattering.

I knew when my career was over. In 1965 my baseball card came out with no picture.

If you check your ego at the door when it comes to comedy, you’ve got a pretty good shot at making a great movie that you can commit yourself to, you can jump off the proverbial cliff with, and have a great time, and the audiences respond to that.

In the end, everything is a gag.

Climbing to the top demands strength, whether it is to the top of Mount Everest or to the top of your career.

If I read a book that impresses me, I have to take myself firmly by the hand, before I mix with other people; otherwise they would think my mind rather queer.

Why should I be studying for a future that soon may not exist?

My work as an artist is completely separate from my work as a philanthropist.

I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else.

All of my brothers and sisters are very talented. They all sang all right.

The Four Levels of Comedy: Make your friends laugh, Make strangers laugh, Get paid to make strangers laugh, and Make people talk like you because it’s so much fun.

Even before Snapchat, you go back into my career from Day One or interview people that knew me for 25 years, they’re going to tell you I’ve been DJ Khaled my whole life.

Sometimes I wish I had taken the Bob Dylan route and sang songs where my voice would not go out on me every night, so I could have a career if I wanted.

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‚I used everything you gave me‘.

Wrestling was like stand-up comedy for me. Every night I had a live audience of 25,000 people to win over. My goal was never to be the loudest or the craziest. It was to be the most entertaining.

I’ve never wanted to use my age as a gimmick, as something that would get me ahead of other people. I’ve wanted the music to do that.

Basically, I’m one of the greatest producers ever. And I’m also one of the greatest DJs ever. And I’m also one of the best executives ever.

If my mother knew I did this for a living, she’d kill me. She thinks I’m selling dope.

I have a lot of friends who do what I do. Either they’re actresses or singers or things like that.

Everyone enjoys doing the kind of work for which he is best suited.

When I was a comic in the 1980s, I was on the road somewhere every day, and I’d get back to the hotel, and it was Carson and Letterman, and I looked forward to that all day.

I just was never into performing. It’s just hard work. It’s hard work.

Well, I don’t think there’s any need for people to focus on my career.

I don’t go off and sit down and try to write material, because then it’s contrived and forced. I just live my life, and I see things in a word or a situation or a concept, and it will create a joke for me.

I learned from the guys before me – Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Richard Pryor, just to name a few. These are guys that let it all hang out. What they lived is what they took to the stage.

I’m proud to be an actor. See, as an actor, you live longer. Football players, the brain and all that stuff, ooh-eee, that’s not good.

I don’t get up, get dressed, go out, and think, ‚Okay, I gotta find eight jokes.‘

Any man who has had the job I’ve had and didn’t have a sense of humor wouldn’t still be here.

There’s no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.

One element of Madonna’s career that really takes center stage is how many times she’s reinvented herself. It’s easier to stay in one look, one comfort zone, one musical style. It’s inspiring to see someone whose only predictable quality is being unpredictable.

The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, ‚Thus far and no farther.‘