A Quote by David Byrne

Real sadness is such an all-encompassing intense thing that it takes you out of your humdrum existence. If you can still function, you want to show it while it's peaking. So when people tell you to cheer up, it's not always the best thing.
So many things suddenly made sense for the clowns, for the whole idea. I’d been going through a struggle, particularly after 9/11; I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to say. I still wanted the work to be the same kind of mixture – intense, with a nasty side or an ugly side, but also with a real pathos about the characters – and clowns have an underlying sense of sadness while they’re trying to cheer people up. Clowns are sad, but they’re also psychotically, hysterically happy.
I want to be on that thing that people watch while they're eating a quick dinner before they go out, or to cheer them up. I want to make people laugh every day, if I can.
Here's the thing: When you tell somebody, 'I love you. I have always loved your work, and I want to show people a different side of you,' it's sort of an interesting thing that in my case, I've been very lucky, where they're like, 'OK.'
For me the best thing about winning an award is when the people cheer for your win. When you can see that the people are really happy that you are winning something, that's the most reward thing in the world.
Even if I'm doing a show and there's five people in the audience and the sound system is terrible - I mean, it's been a while but I've certainly done those kind of shows where it's just every conceivable thing is against you - you still have music. It's still something that's real whether there's five people in the audience or a hundred thousand people in the audience. And that's always been there for me.
I always felt like the best comedy came out of sadness, and some of my favourite shows growing up - a lot of my influences - have these very sad characters and treat that sadness seriously while also being very funny.
You want a diverse writers' room, not because it's the fair thing to do or the right thing to do, but because it's the best thing to do for your show. I've seen that to be true.
It's hard after a long day at work to still get your butt up and go to the gym, so classes are the best motivators for me, or if I have a trainer. I had a trainer for a while, and that was cool because you just show up, and they tell you what to do.
One thing I'd like to just keep on doing is I want to educate people about animal behavior and about autism. I've been doing autism talks for the last 20 years and there still are people out there that do not want to, they can't recognize that these sensory problems are real. That, for some of these kids when that fire alarm goes off, that really hurts the ears, it's a really real thing.
People are stubborn about what they perceive to be the right thing or the wrong thing, and it takes a long time to filter this human condition. There's a waiting period until people catch up. But if you have patience - which it takes when someone thinks differently from you - everybody always catches up. That patience is a wonderful virtue.
Much of my life had been devoted to trying not to cry in front of people who loved me, so I knew what Augustus was doing. You clench your teeth. You look up. You tell yourself that if they see you cry, it will hurt them, and you will be nothing but a Sadness in their lives, and you must not become a mere sadness, so you will not cry, and you say all of this to yourself while looking up at the ceiling, and then you swallow even though your throat does not want to close and you look at the person who loves you and smile.
A lot of stand-up is talking about your perspective in the world and your experiences in life. And I think it takes any comedian a while to find out what their thing is, or what they feel good doing on stage.
Anybody who tells you that being married and having kids is a walk in the park - it's a beautiful thing. It's the best thing I've ever done in my life - but it's definitely work. You have to work at it like you do anything else you care about in life. It takes commitment and it takes work, and that's all part of it, but in the end there's nothing more worthwhile than working on your family. It's just the best thing in the world.
Everything that has to do with sex is somehow... it's the best thing in the world, and it's still the one thing people don't want you to talk about.
The first thing you always do is seek out the best people that you can find for your organization. If you find the best people, you can basically go anywhere you want to go because they will take you there.
It's important, therefore, to know who the real enemy is, and to know the function, the very serious function of racism, which is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and so you spend 20 years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn't shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Someone says you have no art so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms and so you dredge that up. None of that is necessary. There will always be one more thing.
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