Jenny Slate Quotes & Sayings

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. — Jenny Slate

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

It's strange: I've done so many things up until I did 'Obvious Child,' including writing children's books and making 'Marcel the Shell.' To me, the through-line is incredibly clear: it all comes from wanting to be connected to my own inner voice and not wanting to be on somebody else's agenda if that means that I can't be myself. — Jenny Slate

I spend so much time hoping things for myself. — Jenny Slate

I waited my whole life to be a woman, so now my clothes are fairly tight. — Jenny Slate

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

I have a big thing about needing to know that I belong - in my group of friends, in my family, in my industry. — Jenny Slate

I just want to be able to be creative. — Jenny Slate

I'm tired of someone being called 'quirky' because they tripped or got a stain on their shirt. It's like a beautiful blonde lady who's quirky because she has bedhead, or she's quirky because she sometimes says the wrong, cute thing. I like it when women are quirky as human beings. — Jenny Slate

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

I think that there have been a lot of fear-based assertions that feminism is about aggression, and that is incorrect and untrue. Feminism is about equality; that's what it's about. — Jenny Slate

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

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

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. — Jenny Slate

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. — Jenny Slate

I always thought that farts were funny, and I always thought that they were mine to talk about because they came out of my body. — Jenny Slate

People want to see comedies where characters aren't sacrificed for the jokes. — Jenny Slate

I just really like it when things are earnest. — Jenny Slate

I'm usually a fairly harsh critic. It depends. I tend to really not watch my work, because I just feel uncomfortable, and I can be highly critical. — Jenny Slate

Comedy can be a little brutal, but not in a satisfying way. — Jenny Slate

I've always wanted to play a normal woman, and I think I have been offered these parts where I play a kook because I'm not the idea of what a normal woman is. — Jenny Slate

You are not waiting for your life to start. It's going on right now. — Jenny Slate

I tend to be really spacey, but I don't think it's because I'm unintelligent - it's just my imagination and a little bit of ADD. — Jenny Slate

I think, from a really early age, I just wanted to be an actress. And I ended up doing comedy because it was the thing that kind of, like, came out of my nature the most easily. But, I've always wanted to do as many different kinds of performances - whatever I could. — Jenny Slate

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. — Jenny Slate

I didn't hit puberty until I was, like, 17, so I love to talk about that. — Jenny Slate

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

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." — Jenny Slate

I would go so far as to say I would not have the life that I have right now if it wasn't for Gabe Liedman. He is the first person I met in my adulthood that I felt was truly delighted by me and understood me and also was curious about me. — Jenny Slate

Usually what is difficult for me are things that make me feel scared. That's when difficulties rather than challenges arise. — Jenny Slate

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. — Jenny Slate

I don't have any horror stories of trying to start as a comedian and eating it constantly on stage. — Jenny Slate

It's important to say women are complex. — Jenny Slate

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

Don't think twice. If it's a character that you feel compelled to play and story that you feel needs to be told, don't think twice. — Jenny Slate

I want to write a studio movie, but probably one that's for me to be in. — Jenny Slate

I love waking up in the morning. It makes me feel really excited. — Jenny Slate

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

A woman who is not ready to have a baby making it work is not a happy ending to me. It's a personal nightmare. — Jenny Slate

I think that, unfortunately, people who are maybe threatened by feminism think that it's about setting your bra on fire and being aggressive, and I think that's really wrong and really dangerous. — Jenny Slate

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

The experience of the human, male or female, cannot be completely defined by one startling, surprising, or gigantic life experience. — Jenny Slate

There's not one type of stand-up, just like there's not one type of woman. — Jenny Slate

Using creative expression as a means to a professional end makes me curl up a bit. — Jenny Slate

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. — Jenny Slate

I learned my lesson early in my career that it's not helpful to go and look at what other people's opinions are. — Jenny Slate

For some reason, I never watched Lifetime but just discovered it. I was like, 'Oh, it's all rom-coms!' — Jenny Slate

I wanted to be in New York because I wanted to be on 'SNL.' I spent a lot of time wanting to be on 'Saturday Night Live' as a kid. That's what I wanted. — Jenny Slate

It's important to say that it's not just men that can be man-children. Women can be grown-up women and still have the playfulness of people who are younger. — Jenny Slate

I like to wear dresses and skirts when I go onstage because the attitude that I have is, 'I'm so excited to introduce myself to you.' And I want to be wearing what I'd be wearing to a date or a dinner party. — Jenny Slate

You don't have to be in the brightest, shiniest state of being an individual to feel like you're exceptional. — Jenny Slate

I hope that the restaurant I go to will have buffalo chicken fingers. I hope that one day I can work with Matt Damon. I have big and little dreams, and they're all equally important to me. A life without buffalo chicken fingers, I don't know if I would want that life. Even if it meant I got to work with Matt Damon. Everything has its worth. — Jenny Slate

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. — Jenny Slate

I have things I say over and over again, for sure, but I've never wanted to make an album or really go on the road. I don't want any traction. I just want to be able to express myself and to feel love. — Jenny Slate

I do think that character types trend. As a female comedian, the parts that come my way are often terrible women. — Jenny Slate

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. — Jenny Slate

If I'm not the best aunt in America, then I don't know what's going on. — Jenny Slate

It takes a while to realize that just because you're a stand-up comedian and you do comedy, you're not going to be good at all comedy. — Jenny Slate

I don't always feel comfortable being outwardly aggressive. — Jenny Slate

I never noticed my voice. I did become aware as a little kid at camp that I liked doing accents. We'd do plays and skits, and I realized I loved speaking in voices that weren't my own. — Jenny Slate

I loved pretending to be a middle-aged Jewish woman. I just wanted to do what I saw Gilda Radner and Carol Burnett doing. But I'm not a particularly good impressionist. It was never my strong suit. — Jenny Slate

I think it's important to not just speak to like-minded people. — Jenny Slate

I got great sex education, and I always knew that if I wanted to be sexually active, I had to have safe sex. — Jenny Slate

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]. — Jenny Slate

It makes a lot of sense to me that I would be a cartoon. I feel like a cartoon as a person. I really, really do. — Jenny Slate

I sometimes think my earnestness is confused for stupidity, but it shouldn't be. — Jenny Slate

It's 2014, and the fact that anybody has to fight for the right to do what they want to do with their body in a safe and responsible way is infuriating. — Jenny Slate

I really like working. I can't think of a job I didn't like. I was in an Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, which is not my idea of folk art; but I really enjoyed making it, and everyone was really nice. — Jenny Slate

'Obvious Child,' the short, had a nice life online and a great festival run, but the short and the feature still stand apart from everything else I've done. I play a woman who you might meet in life. My other work is much more heightened. — Jenny Slate

'Saturday Night Live' will always be this amazing, powerful behemoth, but it's also not the only thing happening in comedy anymore. — Jenny Slate

That time when you're waiting for a job can be the most impactful and important time because you develop your preferences as a person. Knowing what you like will make you more confident. And then you'll stand out. — Jenny Slate

Don't use a pick-up line. — Jenny Slate

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

I grew up idolizing Madeline Kahn and Lily Tomlin and Carol Burnett, Ruth Gordon, Rosalind Russell, Amy Irving, women who were stylish and real actresses who did real work and could not be replaced with anyone else. You cannot cast anyone else in Madeline Kahn's roles. — Jenny Slate

I feel nervous when the script is set in stone, and I feel nervous when I feel the script is written for mass consumption because I don't see myself that way. — Jenny Slate

My baseline function is I'm usually really happy and optimistic. I think I really genuinely like being alive, and I've got a spring in my step - that's what I've been like all my life. — Jenny Slate

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

I was a teenager in '95, so I didn't dress like a woman then. I was really small. I remember wishing I wasn't wearing Gap Kids. — Jenny Slate

I think my friends would say I'm pretty goal-focused but whimsical. — Jenny Slate

When I was growing up, I was so fascinated by Mel Blanc and all of the different voices that he did for 'Looney Tunes' and watching Robin Williams record voice-over for the genie in 'Aladdin.' It always seemed to be a major honor - something you have to earn. Like people trust you when they want to have you there without seeing you. — Jenny Slate

I tend to watch things that aren't really the genre of my own work. — Jenny Slate

There's a whole thing now in the entertainment industry that's like, 'You need to write for yourself. Those are the people that are really valuable.' And it's just like, 'I don't want to! I just want to act!' — Jenny Slate

I always wanted to be a children's author, and I have a really big library of children's books. All the ones from when I was little, they are just so beautiful. I read kids' books, and they calm me down. — Jenny Slate

There is something to grace and deportment, but you determine that for yourself. That's something you own. — Jenny Slate

Back at high school, there was this quarterback who asks me out. He's never paid attention to me before, but now we're on this date, going to see the 'Sixth Sense.' And right before the climax, he leans in - and I'm so excited, because I think we're going to French-kiss - and then he tells me the twist. He completely ruins the movie for me. — Jenny Slate

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. — Jenny Slate

I like any film where the female characters are complex and have a functioning imperfection. — Jenny Slate

There's so much interference, so much static and people's voices talking about what you do and why you do it that I've learned to be like, 'No, no.' It's actually simple. I just do this. — Jenny Slate

I've called myself an accidental activist because I came to it not on purpose. — Jenny Slate

I couldn't wait to be an adult woman, and I'm glad I felt that way as a kid because, when I grew up, I realised I live in a world where the female form is really disrespected, and society is often trying to wrestle the female form into a shape that looks more like a young boy. — Jenny Slate

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

I think sometimes in comedy the characters are often sacrificed for the joke, and it's more important for it to be funny than for there to be love. — Jenny Slate

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. — Jenny Slate

I've become very interested in the ways things can change even with someone you've known for many years and you've committed to for life. How drastic can you damage things in the way you speak to someone? — Jenny Slate

We love rom-coms, but it's getting to where we don't identify with any of the women in them. — Jenny Slate

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. — Jenny Slate

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

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

I fidget and change my outfit a lot. It's really a way of keeping myself comfortable. — Jenny Slate

I like dressing like I'm going on a date when I'm on stage. — Jenny Slate