Aisha Tyler
Marriage isn't a carnival ride.Collection: Marriage
If you look at shows like 'Def Comedy Jam' in its heyday, there were so many really funny, talented black comics that never would have gotten on that show because they just weren't doing comedy that fit that mold.Collection: Funny
My parents were vegetarians. I'd show up at school, this giant black kid, with none of the cool clothes and a tofu sandwich and celery sticks.Collection: Cool
I feel if you believe in equality, you have to believe in it for everybody. And that's the way I've always lived my life.Collection: Equality
You can't control where you were born, the family you were born into, what you look like; you can't control any of those circumstances. The only thing you can control is how you react.Collection: Family
I thought I was gonna be an attorney, so I went to Dartmouth and I was a government major and I minored in environmental policy, and I didn't do anything academically around the arts.Collection: Environmental
Success is not the absence of failure; it's the persistence through failure.Collection: Success
The only concept or experience or core belief that I can attribute my other-ness to is that I just started out a weirdo and I stayed a weirdo. And it took me a long time to embrace my outsidership and see it as a strength rather than a weakness.Collection: Strength
I'd like to provide an SAT word in everything I do.
My hands are delicate and elegant, thank you very much. They're well-kept; my nails are clean.
The only way I was going to be funny was if I was myself, and either you liked it, or you didn't. Either you got on my train, or you didn't. Freeing myself of this idea that I had to fit a certain mold was when I was able to be my funniest.
One of the first movies my dad took me to see was the original 'Road Warrior.' And I was kind of raised on the action movies of that era: 'The Terminator' and 'Die Hard' and, of course, all of the 'Star Wars' movies.
It's always been the genres that fascinated me. I think great action movies and great thrillers are transformative.
I remember leaving the first 'Matrix' movie feeling completely radicalized, completely changed. I think we all, from our ordinary lives, like to think about putting ourselves into these extraordinary situations and wonder how we'd respond.
I see the first 'Bourne' movie as really kind of a fulcrum in changing the modern action film, where things are really gritty and really character-driven. Think about how the entire Bond franchise was completely radicalized by Bourne.
I'm surrounded by geniuses, which is really not good for my own personal self-esteem!
Dartmouth represented a great opportunity. I wanted to go to the best possible school I could go to.
Dartmouth is a small school with high-caliber teaching. Our classes were all taught by professors, not teaching assistants. I felt like that was a school where I could make a big splash. The opportunities would be grander and more robust for me there than at a school with 40,000 students.
I didn't mind being in a school with a small African-American population. The African-American-community was very tight, and that was great. But I also wanted to interact with other types of folks.
Every culture is very important. Dartmouth has always been dedicated to diversity of culture.
I tell jokes, chat with people, and make stuff.
I am constantly re-evaluating my goals and trying to strike items from my to-do list that aren't critical.
Standup comedy is inordinately difficult. If doing something else for a living will make you equally happy, choose that instead. I'm serious. Comedy is punishing.
I think people assume that because I talk the way that I talk that I grew up with money, and then I've had to say, 'No, I grew up poor.' And then I was like, 'Why do I have to play this game where the only black experience that's authentic is the one where you grew up in poverty?' I mean, it's ridiculous.
God, I mean I had so many people tell me, 'What you're doing doesn't work.' I used to have to get on stage and apologize for talking the way that I speak.
If you have an embarrassing story, and it's a source of shame, keeping it in just compounds the shame and turns the story into something poisonous. And if someone knows about it, then it can be used against you.
Everybody has those stories that make them wince when they think about them silently. But as soon as you tell that story, it becomes a little bit less cringe-inducing.
I love New Orleans. I did a movie there right before Katrina.
I'd be plenty happy if I could keep playing scientists and cops for the rest of my career.
I can't say that there's been some big change during my career where all of a sudden everything's totally colorblind.
I try to do more intelligent roles, unusual roles, and stronger women, and that's helped me a little bit with my casting opportunities.
After 40, your chances of getting pregnant are between two and eight percent, and in my particular case, they were less than five percent.
I married my husband because I loved him, and I don't feel like there's anybody missing from our marriage, but when you think about this person that you love, and you think about what a wonderful thing it would be to bring another person like that into this world, I think that's the hardest part about all of it.
I am black, and there's no getting around that, but being black doesn't define every aspect of my life.
I was born in California, raised a vegetarian, and love science fiction, so don't tell me how I need to be in order to fit your standards.
Marriage is a mystery, and part of it is just being kind to each other, not being selfish.
I started out being a stand up and writing my own material. That took me to 'Talk Soup,' where I was writing and performing for TV.
I have a whole 'Halo' corner in my house. One time, when I went to Bungie, they gave me this awesome 'Halo: Reach' backpack. Usually, when you get stuff like that, it either ends up in the garage or going to charity. But I walk around with that 'Halo: Reach' backpack all the time, and I drink out of my 'Halo: Reach' bottle every day.
My goal is definitely to direct features - action movies, that's my favorite genre. So I would love to do the 'Halo' movie.
I'm, like, a binge gamer.
I think, like most gamers, I talk a good game.
I can't control what's fair and unfair. I can't control the nature of the business or the nature of society or the nature of the world, but what I can control is how I choose to see the world and what I choose to put back into it.
I believe in hard work. I think that everything flows out of that.
I hated, when I was a kid, being told that 'Black people don't do that.' And the white kids at school didn't accept me because I was black, and the black kids in my neighborhood didn't accept me because they thought I thought I was white.
We were poor. My mother got our clothes out of the free box at the church, you know? So much of when you're a kid is about relating about what you watch on TV. And who's got these cooler shoes, and 'Let's trade lunches.' And I was just like, 'I don't have a television. I have a rock and a piece of tofu.'
For a little while, my mom was a school teacher. And I went to the school that she taught.
My dad, he was a construction worker. He was a butcher. He was a deep sea fisherman.
A lot of people try to control how you access gaming. You know, they're trying to prevent people from buying games.
I used to worry that if I wasn't having a dynamic life, then I wouldn't have anything to talk about.
I think art comes out of meaningful experiences, and it's hard to make art when your meaningful experience is getting into your electric car and driving from your fancy house in the Hills to your fancy job in the Valley.