A biography for Cord Jeffersonhasn’t been written yet.
“If you're a good journalist, you can probably be a good screenwriter or novelist. That skillset travels.”
“The world isn't on a moral decline, because there was never a time when the world was particularly morally superior.”
“Very frequently Black people and other people of color in this country are taught that they need to be stoic and keep a stiff upper lip and not let anything affect you, or at least, you shouldn't show emotion if something affects you.”
“I don't ever want to police people's laughter. People laugh for all different kinds of reasons.”
“New York loves a winner, which is confounding when one considers the inherent, systematic ways it impedes success.”
“A satisfying ending can make up for a lot of mistakes that come before it.”
“Black artists attacking other Black artists doesn't move anything forward, necessarily.”
“I was just desperate to make stuff. That's really what I learned about myself.”
“In thinking about the end of the world, it's only fair to be rigorous and think about whether it would even be a bad thing.”
“For a few weeks one summer, when I was about eight or nine, my family and I road-tripped from our home in Tucson to the Grand Canyon and then up to Yosemite National Park.”
“When a young black man acts crazily in my presence, I can't help but feel that, secretly, everyone is not only judging him, but also me, for looking like him.”
“The thing about New York stories that many storytellers often forget is that they can take place anywhere in the world. That's because for some people, New York City stays with them long after they've left it behind.”
“Probably a lot of people of color in this country can empathize with this idea that you need to hide who you are in order to get along.”
“Sometimes people just fail.”
“I've never been prepared for the spotlight. It makes me incredibly nervous.”
“When you are going about hiding so much of yourself, you can also miss a lot of what's right in front of you because you're so focused on deceiving everybody else that you aren't focused on what people are actually trying to tell you.”
“I started out as a journalist for about 8 or 9 years, and then I started working in film and television in 2014.”
“The reason I became a writer is because I like sitting in dark rooms by myself, not standing on stage and talking to people.”
“I think that 'The Good Place,' for instance, is a sitcom about ethical philosophy. Sounds crazy, but it worked.”
“Americans have long had a difficult time accepting just how bleak the English are willing to get for laughs.”