Aisha Tyler

I was always a theatrical kid.

I have a lot of good girlfriends that I really love, but you know, most of my close friends are men.

A lot of people try to control how you access gaming. You know, they're trying to prevent people from buying games.

I can tell you this: Stand-up is not glamorous.

I was with someone at 19, and I was married at 23, and I didn't want kids when I was in my 20s.

I started out being a stand up and writing my own material. That took me to 'Talk Soup,' where I was writing and performing for TV.

The only concept or experience or core belief that I can attribute my other-ness to is that I just started out a weirdo and I stayed a weirdo. And it took me a long time to embrace my outsidership and see it as a strength rather than a weakness.

There's a clock ticking on the pregnancy thing, but not a clock ticking on adoption.

Marriage is hard. I'm not gonna lie.

And I was the only black kid in my school for almost all of my childhood, until I was a teenager. So imagine, if you will, being 6 feet tall by third grade, so essentially being a living maypole.

I won't apologize for choosing my career over kids.

I don't believe in superheroes but I love Batman movies. There's a part of every person that is entertained by the idealistic, the fantastic.

Instead of focusing on, 'Oh, there's a black lady who plays videogames,' focus on that there's another person out there who loves the same stuff that you do.

I'd like to provide an SAT word in everything I do.

I think, like most gamers, I talk a good game.

I see the first 'Bourne' movie as really kind of a fulcrum in changing the modern action film, where things are really gritty and really character-driven. Think about how the entire Bond franchise was completely radicalized by Bourne.

I think art comes out of meaningful experiences, and it's hard to make art when your meaningful experience is getting into your electric car and driving from your fancy house in the Hills to your fancy job in the Valley.

I married my husband because I loved him, and I don't feel like there's anybody missing from our marriage, but when you think about this person that you love, and you think about what a wonderful thing it would be to bring another person like that into this world, I think that's the hardest part about all of it.

Dartmouth represented a great opportunity. I wanted to go to the best possible school I could go to.

Am I going to complain about being typecast as smart? I don't think so.

My dad, he was a construction worker. He was a butcher. He was a deep sea fisherman.

I really love being busy because I am - feel like I am at my best when I am busy.

If you look at shows like 'Def Comedy Jam' in its heyday, there were so many really funny, talented black comics that never would have gotten on that show because they just weren't doing comedy that fit that mold.

I like grown up comedy.

I tell jokes, chat with people, and make stuff.

Do you have any idea what it's like when you try and make home porn? My husband and I tried it. We looked like charging hippos. Best to leave it to the pros.

I really do know football.

Pop culture is great, but it can be bad, at times.

Bravery is the engine of change.

I remember leaving the first 'Matrix' movie feeling completely radicalized, completely changed. I think we all, from our ordinary lives, like to think about putting ourselves into these extraordinary situations and wonder how we'd respond.

Pursuit of perfection is futile. Instead, I prioritize and often realize goals or tasks I've been aiming for just aren't that important.

I hated, when I was a kid, being told that 'Black people don't do that.' And the white kids at school didn't accept me because I was black, and the black kids in my neighborhood didn't accept me because they thought I thought I was white.

I'd be plenty happy if I could keep playing scientists and cops for the rest of my career.

Sunday is like this entertainment scrum for me, because I've only got a day, one day of fun. So I want to have brunch, and I want to see a movie, and I want to watch 'Game of Thrones,' and I'm trying to watch 'The Sopranos' from the beginning, and I want to play four hours of video games. So, it's, like, as regimented as my work life.

So much of a stand-up's life is doing live radio and having to be funny and quick on the spot with these strangers, and sort of surgical in terms of how funny I can be in three minutes.

I believe in hard work. I think that everything flows out of that.

I love fashion, and I love how it makes me feel, but it doesn't rule my life.

When I get old and slow down I want to look behind me and see all the fire and the wreckage and no stone left unturned.

The whole principle of coming out is that everyone knows someone who's gay. The minute someone comes out, no one can be a bigot, because someone they love is gay.

I'm the kindest, most supportive friend ever, probably to my own detriment, but I hope that I am toughening up a little bit.

There's a part of every person that is entertained by the idealistic, the fantastic.

I love women, and I have a lot of really close girlfriends, but I'm not one of those women who's like, 'Ew - that's boy stuff.'

But I love stand-up, and it's where I came from creatively, so it's something I never want to walk away from.

Pop culture hales you and wants you to fail.

One of the first movies my dad took me to see was the original 'Road Warrior.' And I was kind of raised on the action movies of that era: 'The Terminator' and 'Die Hard' and, of course, all of the 'Star Wars' movies.

I'm sure I had low-level scurvy all of my childhood.

I've always been an outsider.

Success is not the absence of failure; it's the persistence through failure.

In my life and my work, I really try to be just fully myself.

I went to private school for two years, then Aptos Middle School, and I finished at McAteer. Several of my classmates at those schools are my friends today.

I was like, 'I want us to stop using that term. I'm not a 'girl gamer.' I'm just a gamer.' The reasons I love gaming are the same reasons everyone loves gaming.

You rarely see women being nice to each other on television anymore.

It's always been the genres that fascinated me. I think great action movies and great thrillers are transformative.

Marriage isn't a carnival ride.

I think the thing I fear most in life is waking up one day and not feeling challenge - feeling ambivalent or glib about what I have to do that day.

I have a whole 'Halo' corner in my house. One time, when I went to Bungie, they gave me this awesome 'Halo: Reach' backpack. Usually, when you get stuff like that, it either ends up in the garage or going to charity. But I walk around with that 'Halo: Reach' backpack all the time, and I drink out of my 'Halo: Reach' bottle every day.

God, I mean I had so many people tell me, 'What you're doing doesn't work.' I used to have to get on stage and apologize for talking the way that I speak.

The only way I was going to be funny was if I was myself, and either you liked it, or you didn't. Either you got on my train, or you didn't. Freeing myself of this idea that I had to fit a certain mold was when I was able to be my funniest.

I try to do more intelligent roles, unusual roles, and stronger women, and that's helped me a little bit with my casting opportunities.

Not only was I the only black kid and the only poor kid, but my parents were transcendental meditation devotees, and I live in an ashram for a good portion of my childhood.

For the record, I'm a clinical workaholic.

Everybody has those stories that make them wince when they think about them silently. But as soon as you tell that story, it becomes a little bit less cringe-inducing.

My husband and I met when I was a teenager, and I've been with him for more than half of my adult life.

I thought I was gonna be an attorney, so I went to Dartmouth and I was a government major and I minored in environmental policy, and I didn't do anything academically around the arts.

I really try to make smart choices about my fashion and really live a life on the carpet that's the same as the life I live normally.

I believe that the essence of marriage is choosing someone who loves you for who you are, embraces everything about you, and building a life with that person. Whether that life is with children or without children - it's honestly immaterial to building a life with someone that you love fully.

My hands are delicate and elegant, thank you very much. They're well-kept; my nails are clean.

Every culture is very important. Dartmouth has always been dedicated to diversity of culture.

You can't control where you were born, the family you were born into, what you look like; you can't control any of those circumstances. The only thing you can control is how you react.

I am black, and there's no getting around that, but being black doesn't define every aspect of my life.

On general principle, I boycott shows that don't employ actors.

I am constantly re-evaluating my goals and trying to strike items from my to-do list that aren't critical.

We were poor. My mother got our clothes out of the free box at the church, you know? So much of when you're a kid is about relating about what you watch on TV. And who's got these cooler shoes, and 'Let's trade lunches.' And I was just like, 'I don't have a television. I have a rock and a piece of tofu.'

It's very hard when you love someone very much to also start to realize that maybe you want different things for your lives.

My parents were vegetarians. I'd show up at school, this giant black kid, with none of the cool clothes and a tofu sandwich and celery sticks.

Comedy is ugly. It's honest, it's raw.

The City gets more and more beautiful every time I come home.

I have this insane and unabated longing for San Francisco. I come up there every chance that I get.

I'm just myself, so I don't know that I think of myself as a nerd icon.

For someone to say that marriage is only about procreation is a joke. I didn't marry my husband to have children. I married my husband because I love my husband.

I'm surrounded by geniuses, which is really not good for my own personal self-esteem!

One thing about creativity is, when you feel confident and respected, you're more likely to pitch more interesting stuff because you're not as precious with it. You feel like, 'This is going to land, and I'm going to be supported in this.'

I am absolutely a Giants fan and I'm a Dynasty baby so I was a 49ers fan for a long time.

You know, it's about getting out there and having a good time. Not about worrying - all these young books for women are like I'm 29 with a closet full of Prada shoes and I can't get a date. Come on.

I was this weird little bookish giant.

If you have a secret, and it's embarrassing to you, when you tell that story - you own it. It becomes yours, and no one can use it against you.

It's a thrill to star with such great actors like Kevin Bacon, Kelly Preston, and Garrett Hedlund.

Yes, I do get recognized in public. It's pretty nice.

You know, I read graphic novels but not encyclopedically.

I'm, like, a binge gamer.

I might not agree with myself in a year.

I didn't mind being in a school with a small African-American population. The African-American-community was very tight, and that was great. But I also wanted to interact with other types of folks.

I've said this before, and I'm sure there are people who disagree, but I feel like one of the reasons there aren't a lot more women in stand-up - and there are many more now; it's not parity, but it's getting there - is that women are not socialized to look stupid or silly. They're socialized to be pretty and precious.

Chris Parnell's a genius, so he'd be amazing on 'Who's Line.'

If you're a game company, you want to create a singular gaming experience, and part of that is doing stuff that nobody else is doing. If you're trying to create a game that feels different, you're going to create a lead that feels different. It's not going to be just another white guy.

I love Toronto. I love it. I love Toronto. I love Canada. I can't wait to get back. Can't wait to have some Timbits.

I was raised by a single dad. Dad's idea of hanging out with your kid or day care was give her $20 in quarters, drop her at the arcade, and tell her not to talk to strangers.

Marriage is a mystery, and part of it is just being kind to each other, not being selfish.

I was born in California, raised a vegetarian, and love science fiction, so don't tell me how I need to be in order to fit your standards.

Standup comedy is inordinately difficult. If doing something else for a living will make you equally happy, choose that instead. I'm serious. Comedy is punishing.