Kumail Nanjiani Quotes:

I think, you know, a lot of the business of comedy is taking your personal experiences and making them relatable to other people.

source: - "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

Topics: Thinking, People, Comedy

I never really got into game shows. The easiest one is Wheel Of Fortune because you just have to know words, and for the most part everyone knows words.

source: - "Actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani answers our 11 questions". Interview with Marah Eakin, www.avclub.com. July 23, 2014.

Topics: Games, Wheels, Fortune, Wheel Of Fortune

I would say I try to make my comedy really personal. I try to tell stories that happened to me, experiences from my life.

source: - "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

Topics: Trying, Stories, Comedy

I moved to New York first and was really apprehensive about moving to L.A., but I really, really like it.

source: - "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

Topics: New York, Moving, Firsts

Im from a family of doctors, and I think they really wanted me to be a doctor. I even sort of assumed I would be a doctor.

Topics: Thinking, Doctors, Would Be

I love, love, love the street-cart food. Gyros are like a meat-flavored fruit roll-up. A meat roll-up.

source: - "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

Topics: Meat, Fruit, Carts

I approximated the Black Friday experience at home by hurling myself into a wall a number of times and then ordering online.

Topics: Thanksgiving, Friday, Wall, Black Friday, Hurling

You really need to have that discipline. It's not even discipline. I just put down these rules. It's not like a vague, 'Motivate yourself!' and do something. Its specific hours set aside every day for certain things.

source: - "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

Topics: Discipline, Needs, Hours

Just because you saw a vampire doesn't mean that a snowman or a Loch Ness Monster also exists.

source: - Source: www.motherjones.com

Topics: Mean, Vampire, Monsters, Loch Ness Monster, Snowman

We only hear success stories. You don't hear about the hundreds and hundreds - the overwhelming majority that don't go anywhere. This is a more realistic portrayal of what happens in startups.

source: - "Kumail Nanjiani Can Totally Relate to His Character on HBO’s 'Silicon Valley'". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. January 2016.

Topics: Majority, Stories, Realistic, Success Stories

I think being funny had something to do with feeling like an outsider, not feeling cool - insecurity.

source: - "Kumail Nanjiani Can Totally Relate to His Character on HBO’s 'Silicon Valley'". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. January 2016.

Topics: Thinking, Feelings, Insecurity

The whole religion of Islam is based on reward and punishment and reward and punishment, and it becomes a part of how you think of everything. Even yourself.

source: - Interview with Jane Marie, believermag.com. January 1, 2015.

Topics: Thinking, Punishment, Religion Of Islam, Reward And Punishment

I thought of America as this crazy, happy, exciting place where everybody's rich and there's stuff everywhere. Compared to Pakistan, it's not untrue.

source: - Source: www.motherjones.com

Topics: Crazy, America, Pakistan

I was extremely shy and had a terrible fear of public speaking. But I had fallen in love with stand-up.

source: - Source: www.motherjones.com

Topics: Shy, Public Speaking, Fallen, Fear Of Public Speaking

The plan was always to come to America, because Pakistan's a scary place. They don't have religious freedom. It's very poor, and there's a lot of violence and corruption.

source: - Source: www.motherjones.com

Topics: Religious, America, Scary

Philosophy is problem-solving. There's a philosophical problem, and then you try to solve it by approaching it from different angles and seeing what way works. That's what comedy is: you have a topic and you try to just hit it as many different ways as you can.

source: - Interview with Jane Marie, believermag.com. January 1, 2015.

Topics: Philosophy, Philosophical, Trying

On stage I just have to be myself. In acting you have to be so many other people.

source: - Source: www.motherjones.com

Topics: People, Acting, Stage

My stories take three or four months to fix, and it's not magical of a process. Ultimately it's a boring, difficult process. I write everything out, and then the parts I think are funny I put in bold. Then I go perform it. Then the parts that aren't funny, I unbold them.

source: - Source: www.believermag.com

Topics: Writing, Thinking, Three

I was on this path to becoming a computer-science guy, but I didn't like it. I got no joy from it. It was very, very scary. It was suffocating to think that I was just going to do this thing for the rest of my life.

source: - Interview with Jane Marie, believermag.com. January 1, 2015.

Topics: Thinking, Guy, Joy

I am a very nerdy guy. I understand that it's easier to cast me as a nerdy guy than an action star - although I would love to be an action star!

source: - "Kumail Nanjiani Can Totally Relate to His Character on HBO’s 'Silicon Valley'". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. January 2016.

Topics: Stars, Guy, Action

It's not like I listened to music and then stopped. I still don't have a real appreciation for music because I didn't really start listening to it until my 20s.

source: - "Kumail Nanjiani Can Totally Relate to His Character on HBO’s 'Silicon Valley'". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. January 2016.

Topics: Appreciation, Real, Listening

It wasn't until I moved to New York that I decided to make a conscious effort to be myself.

source: - Source: www.motherjones.com

Topics: New York, Effort, Conscious

I love constructive criticism. I love getting notes when I'm acting. I love them telling me what to do. I don't always agree with it, but I really need it.

source: - Interview with Jane Marie, believermag.com. January 1, 2015.

Topics: Criticism, Acting, Needs, Constructive Criticism

It really helped to have someone whose taste I really trusted who I knew was really smart and a really good writer. Sometimes I find it hard to judge my own work so it was good to have someone who could look at it. It was like, "Oh, she likes it, then it's good."

source: - Source: www.rogerebert.com

Topics: Smart, Judging, Sometimes, Really Smart

Living in Pakistan, you didn't have a sense of how huge and varied America was, geographically.

source: - "Kumail Nanjiani Can Totally Relate to His Character on HBO’s 'Silicon Valley'". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. January 2016.

Topics: America, Pakistan, Huge