Ari Graynor

My deepest fear about doing TV, especially about doing a network comedy, was what if it felt too surface-y? What if it felt too jokey? ”

There's a certain truism that you can't be self-conscious in comedy. ”

I prefer situational or character-based humor to gross-out gags and comedic set pieces. ”

In high school, everyone told me I had a great personality and sense of humor, but I wanted to be the girl who boys liked because she was pretty on top of being funny. I was boy crazy. ”

Comedy is funny when it comes from truth, and that's always the rule of them. It's about how far you can push that boundary. ”

I think the world of comedy is a relatively small community, and especially for women in comedy, there just aren't that many people involved. ”

I have the personality where, although my ego can be healthy, sometimes I also feel like people won't remember me, or they won't know who I am. ”

I was more of the kind of babysitter that liked holding the baby, sort of playing Mom, and then putting the baby to bed and watching TV while eating everything in their kitchen. ”

You look at Richard Pryor and Robert Klein and George Carlin and Richard Lewis - those guys were so smart, they were the thinking-man stand-ups. ”

I started acting because it was essentially the way I needed to survive and equalize my inner life. ”