John Mulaney Quotes

“All my money is in a savings account. My dad has explained the stock market to me maybe 75 times. I still don't understand it.”

“As I got into high school and after puberty, I was a little more inward. I was a real extrovert when I was little, but I don't know, I just got quieter... With my friends, I was still an extrovert.”

“Being president looks like the worst job in the world.”

“Bill Clinton fascinates me because, at the time, it seemed like his shenanigans and the people after him were the biggest political stories you could ever imagine. I remember when the 'Starr Report' was published in the newspaper, all of us were reading it in the high-school cafeteria, and a dean started taking the newspapers away from us.”

“Going on the road for long stretches can seem daunting, and I certainly miss being home sometimes, but the chance to see so many different cities, let alone perform in them, is something I am really grateful for.”

“I don't make plans anymore. So I'm not living minute to minute.”

“I don’t know what my body is for other than taking my head from room to room.”

“I have found that people who really want to work at 'Saturday Night Live' and pursue it get pretty close. You have to be funny – but everyone who works there, it was their dream to work there. So it's kind of nice in that way – there's a lot of people who say: I just always wanted to do this, and now I'm doing it.”

“I have too many influences to name. I like a wide variety of stuff, which I think has been helpful. I liked every comedian I saw on TV growing up in the '80s. Every comedian.”

“I just watched a ton of comedy and saw a ton of different styles, and eventually you think: Oh, yeah, I could be like that.”

“I like making fun of myself a lot. I like being made fun of, too. I've always enjoyed it. There's just something really, really funny about someone tearing into me.”

“I love comedians that dive into politics. I personally don't feel comfortable, with my background, weighing in unless I have a take that I think is funny enough that I would put it in front of an audience.”

“I never knew you were supposed to push off of your feet when you walked. And I tried it, and I walked much faster.”

“I plan to join the 'SNL' band as a maraca player and stand behind saxophonist Lenny Pickett. That way they will at least cut to me before commercial breaks. I'll be sure to look right into camera.”

“I'm pretty self-critical about everything I've ever done.”

“If something is very, very funny but possibly controversial, if it's truly funny, then it's worth doing. Things aren't worth doing for the sake of being controversial.”

“In terms of instant relief, canceling plans is like heroin.”

“It's been very funny to try to act like an adult. Even getting dressed. Every day, I'm like, 'Should I wear a blazer and walk around with an umbrella? Do I carry a briefcase?' Because I'm trying to be some image of the adults I saw on TV growing up.”

“It's important to remember that life is a joke, and that outlook grants a lot of perspective, but I don't think comedy should change and become political due to other things. It should just laugh at that cosmic joke that life is all the time.”

“My dad is and was very funny and had a really dry sense of humor, which, as a kid, seemed un-fun. But in retrospect, it's kind of hilarious.”

“My vibe is like, hey, you could probably pour soup in my lap, and I'll apologise to you.”

“Stand-up for me is just my opinions on things, so it wouldn't be as fun translated into a sketch. Nor would a sketch be as fun if it were me standing there saying it.”

“The more you do stuff, the better you get at dealing with how you still fail at it a lot of the time.”

“Things have to be funny first, and if they want to have a point, that's awesome.”

“Traveling can get kind of lonely sometimes, er… no, not traveling. What is the word? Life. Life can get kind of lonely.”

“You can do good work simply staying up all night and eating nothing but junk food, but probably not in the long term.”

“You can't always see both sides of the story. Eventually, you have to pick a side and stick with it. No more equivocating. You have to commit.”