Quotes from Jordan Peele

New York is about as cosmopolitan as it gets. It's a fairly mixed and woke town, so there weren't a lot of situations growing up where I felt like the outsider or the alien.

The way I look at it is, when you allow people to submerge themselves into a story, they will react by thinking through what it's about. That's just so much more fun and effective, I think, than a lecture.

The best comedy and horror feel like they take place in reality. You have a rule or two you are bending or heightening, but the world around it is real.

As far as writing and directing, I'm very focused on the thriller genre.

You can track elections by who was playing that president on 'SNL' at that time. There's the theory that the more likable or charismatic impression would help get the president elected.

I'll say this: The scariest monster in the world is human beings and what we are capable of, especially when we get together.

I am a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino, who takes time to figure out what his next movie is.

Black people who want to do comedy go into standup, where our heroes opened a lot of doors. Improv doesn't have a ton of heroes that you can look to.

The scariest monster in the world is human beings and what we are capable of, especially when we get together.

When people get together, we are capable of the most beautiful, amazing things. But we are also capable of genocide.

There is something transformative if you're a black person cheering in a theater and turn to see a white person cheering for the same thing you are.

A greater truth that I think we are faced with on a day-to-day basis as minorities is: We are the color of skin first and people second.

Little Haley Joel Osment in 'The Sixth Sense' can see dead people. Well, I can see racist people.

I think, before Obama, there was a glass ceiling. That's a big change. As a president, I think he was the best. I felt like I could trust his judgment, and he'd take a measured, empathetic approach. I don't see there ever being another Barack Obama.

You hear it said time and time again by successful directors: You have to make a movie for yourself. Don't make it for anyone else.

I'm a true believer in story. I think when you just tell people to think, people tend to get resistant and defensive and feel like you're accusing them of not thinking.

As kids, there's somehow the fear that these bullies can end your life if they want to. Everything is blown up, and occasionally that kind of awful thing does happen.

With a horror movie, you want to know where the engine of the fear is coming from. Like in comedy, you want to know what the engine that's going to make the comedy - where that's coming from.

When you start making a movie, people want to know: Who's the star power? And very early, I realized there's not a lot of 26-year-old black actors who have been given the opportunity to be the lead of a film. It's, like, Michael B. Jordan, and then we're done.

There's something kind of horrific about milk. Think about it! Think about what we're doing. Milk is kind of gross.

You boil down your influences to a soup, and it all informs you.

I can fathom anything, man. I love biting off more than I can chew and figuring it out.

Obama was the best thing for black nerds everywhere. Finally we had a role model. Before Obama, we basically had Urkel.

I'm obsessed with giving the audience something they don't see coming.