Ramy Youssef Quotes

Ramy Youssef

Profession : Comedian

Birth : March 26, 1991

There is a fine line between faith and confidence. Confidence has a self-reliance. Faith is really about giving in.

Ramy Youssef

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.

Ramy Youssef

My dad is an amazing human being. He - just a hard worker. Just that thing you think about with, like, just anyone who comes this country - that's my dad. He can do anything. Not just at work - comes home, he can cook, he can clean, fix the toilet, fix the car. He learned all these jobs just so he'd never have to pay another man.

Ramy Youssef

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

Ramy Youssef

I'm a clown. I'm a comedian. Comedy, by design, is a place to explore the subconscious.

Ramy Youssef

In a gray area, you don't have to provide an answer. And I don't want to. I don't want to make a comedy that's like, well, here's the answer. I don't want to make a comedy that's like, this is how to be a Muslim.

Ramy Youssef

My job is to show our humanity, and the only way to be leading with that sort of humanity is to lead with the problems that a family like this might be encountering and putting those on display.

Ramy Youssef

I actually want to hold on to where I came from, and also I want to be at this bar in Brooklyn, even if I'm not drinking at all. What does that tension look like? It's less an attack on the parents and more an interrogation of personal guilt, personal responsibility. That's my internal dialogue.

Ramy Youssef

Meeting at our fault lines is much more interesting to me than meeting at shared values. I'm not trying to sell you something. If anything, I'm trying to show you where we are. There is nothing to hide.

Ramy Youssef

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

Ramy Youssef

I got to a point where I wanted to have some dignity in what I'm saying onstage. I want people to hear what I'm saying, regardless of whether or not it gets a laugh. That became a lot more rewarding than straight acting could ever be for me.

Ramy Youssef

I've always been really turned off by a show where you're kind of just rooting for someone regardless of the stupid things that they do, or regardless of how their ego is clearly driving what they're doing.

Ramy Youssef

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.

Ramy Youssef

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.

Ramy Youssef

A lot of people want what I would call sci-fi; people want television to be what they think the world should look like. That is different than what I do.

Ramy Youssef

If you want a show to talk about politics or the Muslim ban or whatever - someone should make that show. That's not what I'm interested in.

Ramy Youssef

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.

Ramy Youssef

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.

Ramy Youssef

I think if you make a show where you try to make a character look good, not only is it kind of weird, but it's sociopathic.

Ramy Youssef

Being in this industry is so crazy that I don't even know if I could be in it if I didn't have faith. You have to have some level of it to want to keep doing this. Everyone who's been in this long enough has some sort of practice.

Ramy Youssef