Quotes from Lil Rel Howery

I used to watch 'Last Comic Standing' with my mom before she passed. So when I got that red envelope, I was extremely emotional.

What has kept me focused were my kids. My biggest focus is just making sure I'm good to my babies.

The honesty of my material and my being vulnerable was from Richard Pryor. He doesn't mind talking about his life, which is why I think he was one of the dopest to ever do it.

That's the biggest thing: be kind and be original.

The biggest thing is we need to stop acting like racism don't exist.

I thought I would hate New York, but I love New York. I almost hate to say that being from Chicago.

Chicago made me. They can treat me however they want to treat me anywhere else in the country. When I go back home, they treat me like I'm a star.

I was a huge Wu-Tang fan, along with Crucial Conflict, along with Do or Die along with Mobb Deep.

I know I'm being biased about Chicago, but I think Chicago got the most talented people in the world.

Directing is so dope to me, man, 'cause it doesn't necessarily have to be your material. You're making someone else's material come to life. There's something amazing about that.

I'm a student of Comedy Central. It launched careers: Wanda Sykes and even Kevin Hart. The first time I was introduced to him, he was on Comedy Central. It puts you on the map... Hollywood knows now.

I want to do more films - not just comedies, because I really want to show my range.

'No Scrubs' is a mean song for a lot of reasons. If you're 18, 19-year-old guy, or even 17, your friend just got a license. You don't have a real job yet. It's like that song asks you to be an adult way faster than you should.

My friends were the class clowns, but I was the one in class doing Michael Jordan or teachers for no reason. I've always been amazing at impersonating real people, too, rather than celebrities.

My comedy grows as I grow as a person.

I think when we grow up watching TV, the stars seem like stars. You don't know what they went through. You don't know how they got it. It almost seems unattainable. With social media, we are able to show people if you work hard, that you can literally do the same thing.

Some of the scariest movies I've seen are not considered horror movies, like 'Gone Girl.' That movie scared me. I can't watch it again.

There's a difference between delivering real funny and just silly funny.

I'm a hip-hop head, but hip-hop actually introduced me to other genres of music because I started to wonder where a lot of these samples came from. So I fell in love with Bobby Womack or Willie Hutch because I wanted to know where those samples came from.

I can't wait for the rest of my career to meet these young writers and filmmakers so that I can produce and push a lot of their stories out there.

Not everybody gonna be in front of the camera forever, man. That's impossible. Don't get me wrong, I love doing that. But behind the scenes and the power is what I like. I like being in control. And maybe someday I'd be a showrunner.

I'm all for making a woman-empowering song. I get that, and I think that's dope. I've got a daughter, and I think that's amazing. But when you're specifically picking on guys, that's when it's not right. 'No Scrubs' is the meanest, dumbest song ever made because they need to be specific in certain areas.

When I started comedy, I was a big Eddie Murphy fan. I thought if you did stand-up, you were supposed to know how to act, write, and host. I thought it was all one thing. That's why it doesn't feel like I'm transitioning to acting: because in my stand-up, I do characters all the time.

I think Eddie Murphy is the greatest comedian. I do think that Richard Pryor is the Godfather, but Eddie Murphy, in my opinion, has every comedic category in his arsenal. He can roast you. He can freestyle. He can host. He was LeBron James before we even saw LeBron James.