Ramy Youssef

“I don't really like comedy that gives you answers.”

“Stand-up is cool. In stand-up, you get to learn about yourself if you do it from a thoughtful place.”

“I try to be as specific as possible when saying 'Arab Muslims' because there are a lot of different Muslims. I've never really seen stories about us in America, at least where you had versions of our characters that weren't framed by violence.”

“I would get a lot of roles for the ethnic friend and then I would go in for that and not be ethnic enough. They wanted an Indian accent. They wanted something more very visually, clearly specific.”

“What I really like about stand-up is there's 100 people in a room, and you can just feel the pulse. It's very human.”

“I was in school for a little bit at Rutgers for political science, but it was very loose.”

“I love Narcy, he's such a good artist. I know him personally, he's a friend. He's of my generation - he puts out a lot of stuff through music that are themes I like to hit on in my writing and comedy.”

“I just remember always wanting to make things. That was what was really interesting to me, but I had no career goal in sight. I didn't know anybody that had anything to do with show business.”

“We talk a lot about our identities, and we talk a lot about working to clear misconceptions about those identities. But it'd be really cool to see someone like myself not even have to talk about being Muslim or Egyptian, because it's just understood. We can all just be weird and not have to explain everything.”

“I think so much of real life is this avoidance of getting into the not knowing. So much of my life, I've been running from just admitting that I don't know.”

“I always felt like the only messaging I was hearing around faith was, you need to be perfect or you can leave.”

“That's what you do if you're from Jersey. You make a big decision at a diner at 3 in the morning.”

“There's who you think you are and who you want to be, and then who you actually are.”

“I mean, the title of my show is my name. That's not because I was an established voice. It's because of a rising number of outlets, and an increased willingness to take risks. All the sudden, people like me are finding themselves in the position to make things.”

“I've never had a particularly good experience in the Hollywood Hills. I love Hollywood, but there's something about the Hills where I'm just like, 'I'm going to just stay at ground level.'”

“My generation grew up on 'The Daily Show.' Jon Stewart gave me solace. He was the only person who I felt defended Muslims when crazy things were happening; the only place you could find a nuanced take on Iraq was Jon Stewart's show.”

“I just feel like the most important conversations I've had in my life have been at a diner counter.”

“And for me, I reached the point where I know the way I live my life is not conventional, and so I feel like whatever relationship I do end up in is also not going to be conventional. So I don't operate from feeling like I have to be with someone who is Muslim, or the other way around.”

“What I would love for my 30s is to just not have expectations. I don't want to assume anything about my 30s based on my 20s other than just keeping the lessons I've learned, but in terms of what I think should happen with those lessons, I don't know.”

“I feel very much rooted in being Egyptian, and I also feel very rooted in being a guy from New Jersey.”