AMANDA SEALES

America was made for white men. Literally, at the time of the writing of the new country's Constitution, only white men could own land, and only men who owned land could vote.

When I speak of diversity, I don't mean replacement of white comics. I don't mean acceptance by white comics. We comics who weren't born into the white guy paradigm of 'funny' don't need a handout. We don't need a PC push. We don't need 'a look.'

Contrary to far too popular a belief, style, fashion, and fabulousness are not synonymous with stank, haughty, and self-aggrandizing.

When my hair is picked out, my whole aura is picked out, like, 'See this, see me.'

I want to see my career evolve into limitlessness.

My thing about creating things is that it has to do two purposes: It has to serve me creatively but also has to serve the people.

Drake ain't fake.

My mother is black, from Grenada, so my blackness was always there, but It wasn't until I started hanging with the upperclassmen black actors at my high school that I really got my roots in being a black American, which is a distinctly different identity and experience.

I am all at once in awe and in confusion at some of the folks I encounter during fashion week, consistently causing me to mutter to myself or whoever's in earshot, 'Is that really necessary?'

Auditioning for people you know is way more stressful than auditioning for people you don't know. And you have to pretend that you don't know because they're just staring at you.

If I couldn't get to where I wanted to by being my organic self - which is a smart, funny, unapologetically black woman - then I felt like it's not worth doing it if I can't do it the most organic way possible. Which is why I left the music business.

My brain doesn't work in a typical linear fashion: my brain is vibrant and fast and bright and on 10,000 all the time.

Growing up, dating seemed pretty straightforward: If someone was interested in getting to know you on a romantic level, they approached, exchanged info, and proceeded to communicate with you in a consistent fashion between outings of various natures.

Cornrows came back with a vengeance in the early '00s with every dude trying to grow his hair out to get 'braided up.' It was crazy. Girls were getting carpal tunnel in hoods across America trying to make plaits out of 1.5 inches of ungreased hair.

As a black woman, the government is so much in my life, and it always has been.

I look to icons like George Carlin, Chris Rock, and Richard Pryor on how to present these concepts of social change and subversiveness to an audience in a way that's palatable.

For a long time, I didn't have a balance in terms of my worth and my market value; I was just a very talented person who hadn't done any work that truly demonstrated my talent.

I always say your truth is your compass to your purpose.

In most cases, a year older is a good thing. More wisdom, more experience, and less damns given.

When people agree with you, they'll just like it and keep it moving, but when people don't agree with you, that's when they come for your whole neck.

I think, for a long time, I didn't have people who understood where I was coming from. They were giving me advice on what would be good for them.

I don't have the proportions for 'hood hot.'

I am from Florida, so I didn't 'grow up' on Wu-Tang.

As a lover of both hip-hop and jazz, I feel like much of the latter community still doesn't truly embrace hip-hop as a musical extension.

I've made it my business to condition and train folks to understand that you'll never know what's going to come out of my mouth.