Quotes from Brett Gelman

I love Lars von Trier and Michael Haneke, but if I'm not in the right frame of mind to watch their work, I feel upset after watching it.

I love 'Seinfeld.' That was not alternative. You can't get more in mainstream than that.

I always at least try to come from some sort of human place no matter how ridiculous the character is. That's really awesome. That is more the work that I'm leaning towards doing.

I'm a straight white man - I have options, and I'm not blocked on a consistent basis when I wake up in the morning because of my race, sex, and orientation.

Comedy is all about the character. When you're too focused on the gags, the character suffers, and you don't get the laugh. Comedy has to come from the character.

I've definitely had the long stretches of time in my personal life where I've felt an intense loneliness and a desperation to feel something real and to have something that truly meant something in my life.

There's a certain order to network shows that doesn't exist so much in cable, which is, you know, if you want to change a line you've got to talk to the writer.

I've wanted to be a comedian since I was a kid, and my parents were very supportive of that.

I think it's good news that cable television is so, so supportive of the Louis C.K.s, the Lena Dunhams, the Matthew Weiners, and the Vince Gilligans. There's just so many people fearlessly making their stuff, you know?

We live in a country whose government and many of its people support white supremacy and disintegration of basic human rights.

I like being strange. I like being hyperbolic and surreal.

I look upon 'A Little Bit of Luck' as a very bizarre, happy, surreal memory.

We spend so much of our lives doing math problems on how to feel good. It's such a waste of time. You're going to feel how you feel. It's hard to just set up a way that you're going to live your life that is going to be just endlessly happy and healthy. That's impossible.

Gilbert Gottfried, I think, is just the most underappreciated comedian in the world. I think that he doesn't get enough credit for how funny he is.

I love Adult Swim. They give you so much artistic freedom.

I would say that is the beauty of Adult Swim is that they're always pushing forward from what they've done in the past, and they're always just trying different styles.

What doesn't kill you, if you use it to make yourself stronger, then you will get stronger. But if you let it beat you down, then you will be weaker.

I don't see how I ever could have thought that having an all-white crew for a special about race would be OK.

I think the thing that really started setting my career on the course that it's on is when I did '1000 Cats' on 'Funny or Die Presents' on HBO. That's what I feel like kind of got me a little bit more into the system.

The world is pretty messed up.

I'm not someone who shies away from darkness being funny. I think that life is very dark at times, and there are things that are very funny about that.

As far as making people feel less depressed, that, in and of itself, is a political act.

I'm Jewish, so it's like I'm not totally white. I'm, like, gray.

I get to live a privileged existence.