Jenny Slate Quotes

There are so many different stories. You can choose to tell them, or not, but they certainly have the right to exist

Don't be snarky, but don't be saccharine. Don't pander, but don't shut people out. Go straight down the line with the performance.

Being on "SNL" was a goal that I had when I was younger. When I got fired, I just felt really mad and I felt really grossed out by the system and grossed out by myself and it just sort of knocked me on my ass.

I think the main thing that affected my comedy was that my dad slept in a nightgown for most of my childhood. And it was just very funny every single night and made me realize that laughter is fun and nightgowns are cool.

I'd like to be in a tiny indie where I'm lost at sea.

I don't try to do anything. I think the moment that I'm like, "Oh, I have to be this way or that way" is the moment that I become sad, or maybe an asshole. So I just try to be myself and put out what is most natural. But I think I am - I mean, I've seen a lot, been through a lot. But something remains sort of naïve within me. And I just try to nurture that.

I just want to work hard. I love that feeling.

I always just wanted to be a movie actress, like Lily Tomlin or Ruth Gordon. I just imagined myself being in a movie, wearing stylish women's clothing the way I saw Amy Irving wearing it.

Sometimes you watch comedians and feel like they're jerking off in front of you, but they want you to see how big it is.

I tend to be a bit of a workaholic, but I also can't function without some sort of domesticity as well.

I think my comedic style is at once bashful and explosive. It's a little bit perverted, and a little bit ladylike and old-fashioned, which is a great mix. Sort of tangy.

There was a while when I got really bad stage fright and I basically felt...I was incredibly angry. I felt like everything had been taken away from me and it was at that point that I realized how much doing stand up reminds me of my self love and curiosity about myself and love of other people because I don't go on stage to dominate.

I'm competitive and I have a messy purse, but otherwise, I like people to think I'm a winner.

I don’t think men have time to be funny because they have to make all of our rules about what we can do with our vaginas.

I've never thought of myself as the person that would happen to. There are a few blogs that I read, but I stay off of the Internet for the most part. I really like to just stay in the normal world, the real world.

Although I do stand-up - doing actual stage work is terrifying for me.

I've only been acting since 2009 and I learn more and more with each job. I think I prepare and I'm very focused and I have a good work ethic that I learned in school.

The thing that bubbles up the most when I'm around other people is that I feel a joy of being alive. But I also am a very sensitive person and have many heavier feelings. It can be tiresome after a while to only do comedy, especially after you grow as a person. It starts to feel like you're playing an older version of yourself.

Infidelity is not freedom. It's a momentary respite from stressors that are going to come back.

I'm sure that if I had a partner and that partner cheated on me, that I would be devastated if we were in a committed, monogamous relationship. So of course, it's a devastating thing.

I learned that I was able to focus. I've always thought of myself as somebody who is like either it's there or it isn't there. I really worked at this, and I focused, and I was able to replace self-doubt with focus. That was something new for me to say self-doubt is there, but it does not need to be in the front row. You can ask it to take a back seat and replace that front row seat with focus.

I really like to cook and have dinner parties and I like to clean, it really clears my head and it makes me feel good to keep my home as a comfortable place.

I just want to be able to do something that's interesting to me.

I'd like to be in a female version of The Fugitive. Something where I don't have to be ripped up like an action star, but be a normal, healthy lady who is framed and on the run. I'd have to run from explosions and punch people in the face but not rappel down a building.

I play a lot of characters where I don't even speak in my own voice. I learned about focus and I learned to trust that things can work when they're not heightened and that it's interesting when things are pared down.

I think the reason I like making movies sometimes more than doing TV is that you have one task, you only have a certain amount of time to do it, and then it is done. And I really like focusing in that way.

I just left wishing that it was longer because I enjoyed it so thoroughly.

I don't like feeling hemmed in and I don't like feeling that I'm repeating myself.

If you make a careless choice, you can really ruin things and it can take awhile for them to repair.

There are so many things I'd like to do. I'd really like to be in a period piece that takes place in old New York or old Hollywood and wear those costumes and that makeup.

TV can be fairly rigid. I've done enough Network TV to know that it's fun but if I have to go somewhere every day maybe it's not the most satisfying [job].

At the beginning of my career, fresh out of college, I did everything that I could do. And now I'm a little bit more selective. I think that's sort of a natural process.

I guess some people want to be performers because they want to be famous.

I don't want to grow a thick skin. Some people say, "Oh, you're an actress, you have to get used to criticism." But I don't accept that. I'll never get used to criticism, and I'll always care about whether or not people like my performances - because I'm an entertainer, and I want to please.

I feel like when I go on stage I feel so excited at the prospect that there will be a true connection.

I don't make a lot of mistakes, honestly. I'm an A-student, I'm an Ivy Leaguer. I need those things.

I just want to be able to be creative.

There's a part of me that would love to be in an action movie where I get to run around and punch people in the face and, whatever, be a murderer, I don't care!

When I'm on stage, and when I'm comfortable or uncomfortable, I have sort of a knee-jerk reaction to try to make people laugh. It's my version of a handshake to show that I want to make a connection and to show what I'm truly like. It's kind of my statement like, "This is what I'm really like. I'd like you to love me."

If you're in a good marriage, you have the sense that it won't be forever.

I know that I don't like being teased.

If you don't respect each other and let it lie, it can be embarrassing or really frustrating.

There's a lot of different parts to me, so it makes total sense to me that I would do a big TV show or studio movie and then do a free comedy show the next day. They both feel equally important to me.

A lot of times what's satisfying to me in comedy is when a woman successfully does self-care.

I want to make every kind of movie that I can make. I don't really care if they're big or small.

When I go and make smaller films, I actually never think about them being made for a smaller audience.

You have to be really careful to watch out for the difference between banding together, and being grouped together by people who don't understand you.

I feel a lot of life in me and a lot of creative energy and I think it's better suited somewhere it can run free.

I'm not one to wallow, but I am one to feel the sting of a slap for a while, I think.

When I would go on stage I would start to feel that the eyes that watching me weren't kind. And it took me a while to realize that those eyes were my own eyes.