Margaret Cho Quotes & Sayings

I'm not going to die because I failed as someone else. I'm going to succeed as myself. — Margaret Cho

I love Wilco's "I'm the Man Who Loves You." Nels Cline has that weird guitar slide at the beginning and the song is whispered actually. — Margaret Cho

You have to constantly recreate yourself in show business, which is a very fast thing, especially now with the tremendous speed of social media. There are so many personalities, so many different kinds of comedy that you can access, so it's definitely important to stake your claim and say who you are. — Margaret Cho

I was crazy about the song "Doot Doot," so I usually love this genre of weird, European electronic. — Margaret Cho

I think political correctness really does help us when it serves us but it doesn't help us when it silences us. — Margaret Cho

I'm not a body shamer. The word fat has been used to hurt me my entire life. — Margaret Cho

My mother goes crazy over babies. Some people just do. They love 'em! I never have. Babies scare me more than anything. They're tiny and fragile and impressionable - and someone else's! As much as I hate borrowing stuff, that is how much I hate holding other people's babies. It's too much responsibility. — Margaret Cho

I do love the road, because for me, the road is very comfortable, and it's very much what I've always wanted to do. It's one of the most appealing things about comedy for me, so I do really have an affection for it. — Margaret Cho

I love heavily tattooed women. I imagine their lives are filled with sensuality and excess, madness and generosity, impulsive natures and fights. They look like they have endured much pain and sadness, yet have the ability to transcend all of it by documenting it on the body — Margaret Cho

I can't drag myself away from 'Final Cut Pro.' It is a digital video editing system. I am obsessed with it, but I am always away from home, and I can't use it. — Margaret Cho

I refer to myself as gay, but I'm married to a man. — Margaret Cho

Comedians and people in general have a cultural right to talk about their own culture and race. — Margaret Cho

I love fashion, I'm actually a pretty talented seamstress, so I can make stuff for myself, but that's really time-consuming. — Margaret Cho

I am a big 'Ellen' fan. I have been one for quite a long time now. I used to do the local news talk shows with her in San Francisco, when we were both still kids. — Margaret Cho

It's like your batteries get low, and you need to charge them on someone else's story. — Margaret Cho

I voice my opinions on social media and I have people threatening me with violence. It is troubling but I can fight back, which is good. — Margaret Cho

It's important to feel beautiful; it's political to feel beautiful. — Margaret Cho

I urge you all today, especially today during these times of chaos and war, to love yourself without reservations and to love each other without restraint. Unless you're into leather. — Margaret Cho

I thought I was so ugly for so long, and I wasted so much of my life on this dumb notion. — Margaret Cho

I think that all bodies are beautiful in millions of different ways but I get down on myself too! — Margaret Cho

It's very hard for a woman in comedy. It's hard for women to be bold and not care what anyone, particularly men, think. Maybe that is why so many women comics are lesbians. — Margaret Cho

I don't like catchphrases either. A current one would be, "Bye, Felicia." It's used so much that we don't even know the origin anymore. — Margaret Cho

Since I became a dancer, I have felt much better about myself. — Margaret Cho

To start telling people that you're beautiful, or just feel beautiful, just start acting like you are the most beautiful woman in the world. And it really improves everything! Because your sort of psyche responds to it - like this is truthful! — Margaret Cho

I'm a survivor. But I'm also victim, too. Surviving has the connotation that you've been through it, you lived through it and that's wonderful - but a victim is what I was. "Survivor" is the more healing way to look at it. — Margaret Cho

As a child, I had a lot of older gay men taking care of me. There's a trust there. I feel like little girls and old gay men together - there's a safety. They make a shield from all of the bad things they've experienced in the world. They make a home together. There are no songs about that. I don't know if you remember, but there was a show a long time ago called Love, Sidney. — Margaret Cho

Try to love someone who you want to hate, because they are just like you, somewhere inside, in a way you may never expect, in a way that resounds so deeply within you that you cannot believe it. — Margaret Cho

We must know who we are, so we can know what we want, so we don't end up wanting the wrong thing and get it and realize we don't want it, because by then it's too late. We are powerful enough that we can manifest anything into our lives. To use this power with great care and love is the secret to living a happy life. — Margaret Cho

I helped deliver one of my best friend's children. I just was so amazed by my friend, because she was not just a woman, she was not just a mother. At that moment she was creation; she was life; she was God. And as I looked in her eyes, BOOM! Her pussy exploded. — Margaret Cho

I have a box of awards in the closet. I think it is weird to put them out. I might if I had an Emmy or Oscar, but I don't. — Margaret Cho

Comedy is a noble art. And every comedian who does anything is serving a noble purpose. — Margaret Cho

I'm writing a record of comedy songs. I'm doing all these collaborations with artists. I bring them lyrics and they write the music to it. — Margaret Cho

I am always writing no matter what I am doing and no matter what it is for. — Margaret Cho

I'm taking a lot of my favorite artists, different people, my favorite music and marrying that with what I do as a comic. It's very collaborative, arty, fun and cool. — Margaret Cho

To me, marriage is really important and what we build families on. That's why gay marriage is really important. — Margaret Cho

I don't like pot anymore
I forget why. — Margaret Cho

If you really care about children then why would you want to keep families from adopting them? — Margaret Cho

Being called ugly and fat and disgusting to look at from the time I could barely understand what the words meant has scarred me so deep inside that I have learned to hunt, stalk, claim, own and defend my own loveliness. — Margaret Cho

In America, I'm a foreigner because of my Korean heritage. In Asia, because I was born in America, I'm a foreigner. I'm always a foreigner. — Margaret Cho

People are really terrified of me. I don't know why, I'm very nice, but people are very intimidated by me. — Margaret Cho

Am I gay, am I straight? No, I'm just slutty. So, where's my parade? What about slut pride. — Margaret Cho

I love singing and that's kind of my new thing. — Margaret Cho

I'm always too fat. And I always look terrible. But I love the theater of the red carpet. — Margaret Cho

I am star-struck but also I've known a lot of people for a long time. Like I'm super star-struck by Grant Lee Phillips and Jon Brion but I've known them for 17 years. So it's kinda like weird to be star-struck still, but I still am! — Margaret Cho

Tattooing is my social life, too, so most of my time is taken up with that. People like Henry Lewis, Mike Davis at Everlasting Tattoo. — Margaret Cho

When I do an Asian character or an Asian voice I'm doing one because that's my heritage and my family and where I come from. My family is of Korean descent and specifically North Korean descent. So it makes sense for me to talk about that issue because it's the only weapon I have to somehow avenge my family and my history. — Margaret Cho

You have to adhere to a certain morality, a certain level of decorum, or else you'll be punished and labeled. — Margaret Cho

I get a lot from great '90s artists like Juliana Hatfield, The Pixies, and bands like That Dog and The Breeders. — Margaret Cho

Over half the world menstruates at one time or another, but you'd never know it. Isn't that strange? — Margaret Cho

I didn't appreciate the young woman that I was, or my young beauty, because I was so obsessed with the fact that I felt fat. It's never good to add to anybody else's suffering. It's an important topic to really get the gravity and the importance of - dealing with dignity. — Margaret Cho

Just because you are blind, and unable to see my beauty doesn't mean it does not exist. — Margaret Cho

My inclination during sex always is to use sex toys. That's not something men are often used to. — Margaret Cho

It's hard to find peace with your thighs, but when they chafe, try to be grateful for them. Your thighs let you run and get you where you want to go. I have not just thigh peace but thigh happiness, and it begins with thigh gratitude. — Margaret Cho

I really love Steve Martin and all the stuff he did in the '70s. I think it's really great. — Margaret Cho

I'm very much a stand-up comedian in my heart. That's really what I do. Now I'm trying to incorporate all of the different elements of my work as a performer, and use it as a stand-up comedian. — Margaret Cho

No wonder all the great comedians had such destructive private lives ... After you get the audience into that kind of frenzy, and you are being worshiped like the false idol you are, how do you leave the stage and transition back into real life? ... What is there left to do but set yourself on fire? — Margaret Cho

No matter what these terrorists do, I refuse to be terrorized. All this requires is just a few alterations in our day to day lives. For example, my first instinct when I receive an envelope full of white powder ... is to snort it! I just won't do that this time! — Margaret Cho

In the early '90s, there was such a limited idea of what you could see on TV. — Margaret Cho

My parents never really had that much money, so I kind of live in the same world that they do. — Margaret Cho

If public figures came out of the closet, then the LGBT kids who saw them on TV would feel safe before they even knew why they felt dangerous. Maybe if enough people came out of the closet, gay kids would never feel dangerous. Maybe we could have a world where we could all just live. We may not all agree, but why can't we just all live? — Margaret Cho

I've always been an ajumma, but when you get older, the culture we were brought up in works in our favor where aging is good, combatting the Hollywood idea that aging is bad. I'm very grateful for that. — Margaret Cho

Often something that is in bad taste or considered to be in bad taste is something that's just very true but that people are unwilling to discuss or comment on. — Margaret Cho

I grew up a witness to gay politics in its early days. I remember seeing Harvey Milk and been moved by him. — Margaret Cho

I love New York. I love working here. — Margaret Cho

I think reality television is such a special talent. — Margaret Cho

I can never tell when something is funny. I just have to do it onstage and find out. — Margaret Cho

I think that when you are accused of being in bad taste it can be quite positive. You're challenging the notions of polite society. I'd like to put across the notion that bad taste is actually good for you. — Margaret Cho

Monogamy is so weird. Like when you know their name and stuff. — Margaret Cho

I use my work as catharsis. That's often the best thing that we can do, is to allow ourselves to rage because it's so rare that we get to. We're told to forgive - I don't want to! I don't want to forgive my abuser! I don't care to and I don't like that assumption that forgiveness makes me a better person. It's not authentic to me, my feelings and what I need. But everyone has their own way. — Margaret Cho

My philosophy is, "murder the rapist in your mind so you stop killing yourself." I've seen, in my lifetime, that sexual abuse has turned into self-abuse. When I kill the rapist inside of me, I will stop killing myself. — Margaret Cho

The stuff I do and say onstage I can do easily. As a performer, that comes easily. But being social offstage, it's not easy for me. — Margaret Cho

I loved everything. I read everything. Art and poetry and literature and trash and sci fi. I didn't know what I would become yet and I needed to read to figure it out. — Margaret Cho

We didn't get along, but he convinced me we did. He made me think that I had a fear of intimacy, when in reality I just hated his goddamn guts. — Margaret Cho

I got back from Toronto, where they had a severe outbreak of SARS- you know, Severe Asian Racism Syndrome. — Margaret Cho

What happened in the 80's was that all the men died of AIDS. That was a particularly depressing time because so many people passed away and it was a very desperate and lonely time, so I think a lot of people felt that we were somehow, unreceived. Not only by the disease but also by the public image of the disease. It really gave homophobia a real shot in the arm and changed the way people viewed gays, queers. It became an entirely different atmosphere. — Margaret Cho

When you feel powerful, you are willing to stand up for your rights, you are willing to stand up for what you believe in, you're more willing to stand up and be counted. — Margaret Cho

There's this idea like feminism is humorless and humorless in a way that's like a whistleblower. Like you're going to - you're going to make sure that nobody has any fun. And that's not true at all. I think feminism allows me to do what I do, and I'm so grateful to the idea of it and grateful to all the women that came before. — Margaret Cho

I mean, what's great about touring is that's what you do. You're in a constant state of motion and then you stop to do a show and you move onto the next city. All you have to do is do the show. That's the only responsibility that you have. — Margaret Cho

I was like, Am I gay? Am I straight? And I realized ... I'm just slutty. Where's my parade? — Margaret Cho

Ugly. Is irrelevant. It is an immeasurable insult to a woman, and then supposedly the worst crime you can commit as a woman. But ugly, as beautiful, is an illusion. — Margaret Cho

I think white people like to tell Asian people how they should feel about race because they're too scared to tell black people. — Margaret Cho

Started out, Funny, sexy, zaftig Margaret Cho ... What is zaftig? Isn't that German for big fat pig? I guess I was lucky- zaftig is kind of a nice word. It could have been, Funny, sexy, OBESE Margaret Cho. — Margaret Cho

Something as important as marriage equality, which is now a constitutional right [in the USA], is something that cannot be denied. It's also very un-Christian, if you think about the way Christ was and Christ's teachings. This is not loving. This is anger. This is hatred. This is bigotry. And it's wrong. — Margaret Cho

George Bush isn't Hitler. He could be if he applied himself. — Margaret Cho

Maybe I wanted to hear it so badly that my ears betrayed my mind in order to secure my heart. — Margaret Cho

The only thing that was sort of Asian [as a role model] was Hello Kitty. I don't want to model myself after Hello Kitty. She has no mouth. — Margaret Cho

I was lucky. I always had really great friends in my personal life, people always just knew who I was. It wasn't until I was in show business where that sort of changed or shifted at first. I have always had a great support network. I have had a lot of really wonderful, close friends. — Margaret Cho

Comedy is quite a difficult place for queers and for women. — Margaret Cho

If you have sex, it should be for you, not for the other person. — Margaret Cho

I don't want to hurt anybody because of their looks. That's been used to hurt me so much. — Margaret Cho

That's the nature of comedy - you always want to be improving and growing and changing with what's happening in the world. That's when comedy is most effective. — Margaret Cho

I don't know why it's anyone's business! People do what they need to do. I did it, and it was nowhere near as traumatic as being raped. I was so numb for so long that sex work for me was not a big deal. — Margaret Cho

Try to have a good day today, wherever you are, whatever you do, whoever is near, if no one is near. Try to be happy, because you may not see tomorrow. There is someone this morning, who didn't wake up, who will never see this day. Try to feel lucky that this is not you. — Margaret Cho

Where do people get off telling people what to do? It's their bodies. If you legalized sex work and legally protected the sex workers, you wouldn't see anything like human trafficking. All of that would be obliterated. — Margaret Cho

All the songs on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot are the encapsulation of heterosexual love. I have different records for gay sex. — Margaret Cho

It's not the best between my family and me. There are so many crimes left unpunished, debts unpaid, white elephants in the middle of the room that no one will even offer a peanut to. We are in the red, emotionally speaking. — Margaret Cho

I'm super-obsessed with 'Intervention.' I wrote a song about it. — Margaret Cho

Homophobia is a tough one. In some places it's actually very OK to be homophobic. Comedy clubs in general are very unsafe spaces for LGBT, for women, for Asian people. So my goal in comedy has sort of been to make this a safe space for people who were like me. — Margaret Cho

I became a comedian because I didn't want to be bullied anymore. Onstage I was safe. — Margaret Cho

My life is anything but typical. — Margaret Cho