Ira Glass Quotes

I started comedy in 2006. I didn't even think it was a thing I could do.

I'm not the kind of comic who would try stuff on Twitter, because I have to work up ideas and I can only do that in front of people.

I don't do stand-up anymore.

I don't write anything. It's all done onstage, which is why I always tell younger comics that they just have to go do it. You have to get up, talk, and take a thought or a word and just expound, and you find it in there. I don't sit down and write.

I don't want a chat show or to be on telly every day, as that's not my business; my business is standing in front of people and making them laugh, and I want to see how far I can get with that.

One place that I really feel comfortable is being a comedienne. I'm very socially inept. There's so many things that I can not do in life, and this is, like, the one thing that I have mastery over. It's my world. And anybody who's coming to the show, it's like they're coming because they know that this is my world.

Late night is no different than making a film, really, except that it's faster, and if you do a crap one, you can do a better one tomorrow. Writing a novel and doing stand-up - that stuff is very similar.

For me, the way I stay consistent is through stand-up comedy.

I've been doing stand-up since '89.

Stand-up will always be my first love, and it has been the primary way I've expressed myself since I was 17.

I will always do stand-up, even if my acting career takes off. Stand-up is my life.

I adore doing comedy, I think it's fantastic. I never saw myself doing exclusively comedy.

I do love live performing, but I'm not a stand-up naturally, and I don't like the lifestyle of working just in the evenings at clubs and stuff - not a natural gig-er.

The ability to workshop in stand-up comedy is incomparable to any art form, in my opinion.

In Manhattan, I often do two or three or more shows a night, so I'm always working on new material.

I haven't really done a lot of comedy. It's something that terrifies me.

I never wanted to be road comic.

In my mind, I was always a comedian who was going to branch into writing.

I just like doing standup, that's all I'm interested in or good at.

I had some friends that tried it down there, and I went to a couple of open mics, and I just kind of got this... this sick urge to try it instead of just watching it.

Maybe it's because I come from a very utopian world of being a comedian, but I'm used to many live comedy performances going on in any city I'm in, and each of us is trying to be the best at what we do. I don't think of it as a competition so much as a thriving comedy economy.

I think the challenge is going out in front of a paying audience with absolutely nothing and trying to entertain them for two hours. Thankfully, I only think about that right before we go on, and then once we're out there, everything's fine.

I've been doing comedy longer than I haven't been doing comedy, as I was performing for three years before I even got on 'The Tonight Show.' There's truly nothing like it; it's intense and exhilarating, even though it looks so casual.

The only way to stay sharp is to do live shows. There is no part-time comedy.

There are so many really good comedians, and I would never be as good as they are. It's not my calling.