Jenny Slate Quotations

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.

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.

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

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.

I have no regrets. The best thing to happen to me was for Lorne Michaels to hire me and fire me.

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 am a comedian and I started in stand-up when I was 22.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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 really like working. I can't think of a job I didn't like.

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].

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.

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

Not often is there as much of a vulnerable side as there is a funny side.

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."

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.

I want to keep growing and I want to be an actress for as long as I can.

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'd like to do a little bit of everything. I think the only thing I can't do is a British accent, so that's out. No Shakespeare for me. Unless it's like one of those modern-day remakes.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

I know that I don't like being teased.

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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.

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

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

I just want to be able to be creative.

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

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

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

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.

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