Quotes from Amanda Seales

To act like everyone has had the same access to share their funny is willful ignorance at its best - and just a good ol' fashioned front at its truth.

In most cases, a year older is a good thing. More wisdom, more experience, and less damns given.

I have a theory that when you're lost on the path, go back to the beginning and try the maze again.

From the beginning with 'So Far Gone,' Drake's work has been to find a way to deftly balance his singing and his rapping.

My first encounter with Wu-Tang Clan came when I ordered six CDs from those throwback catalog orders, from Columbia House or something, and '36 Chambers' was one of them. It was on from then.

Exactly what I'm doing is what success looks like. I get to create on my own terms, on my own timeline, and I'm able to support myself and my mom and my cat comfortably.

I've always been funny, but I never considered it as a particular career path until my early 30s, when I realized that hip-hop wasn't going to be the long term.

As a lover of both hip-hop and jazz, I feel like much of the latter community still doesn't truly embrace hip-hop as a musical extension.

Whether you like him or not, hip hop needs Drake.

I've always found inspiration in icons that were really of purpose in their craft or calling. From Bob Marley to Maya Angelou to Malcolm X, inspiration came from seeing how committed they were to their vision and determining it themselves.

Ideally, we date the folks who are dating for the same reason we are.

I used to work at Sirius. And when I got my job at Sirius, I was only 21. It was my first job out of college. And when I think back to what 21 was, though, you're an idiot.

I speak from a black woman's perspective, and that's a specific perspective, but sometimes there are things I want to be understood by folks who may not have an entryway into that concept, so I have to think about how I can open the space to bring those people in. And that does require balance.

Fashion week is not an episode of 'Girls' or 'Friends,' where I'm OK that there is not a black person in sight because I honestly believe these characters don't come into contact with - therefore don't have - any black friends. No, in the case of Fashion week, it feels wrong.

The amount of silliness that happens to me is insane.

'Smart Funny & Black' came about because I felt that black comedians were being considered as only capable of a certain type of comedy - sort of physical, kind of silly - and I felt like we are not a monolith, and our comedy isn't, either.

For a lot of comics who aren't as silly or physical but more intellectual, we get looked at as 'alt comics.' No, I'm still a black comic, and there are black people who want to hear my type of black comedy, but that space hasn't been built out for us.

I feel like I have a unique voice that's true and authentic, and we need more of that. If I can inspire more of that, I need to do that in as many places as possible.

I think it's always been especially hard for black people to let go of musicians who do heinous things because music is such an integral part of our existence.

My whole intention is to break down these limitations of what a black comedian is supposed to be and to open up a space.

Every New Year comes with a list of predictions. Self-predictions, world predictions, how many times Lindsay Lohan will get arrested predictions, etc. I reserve the annual trend for people with genuine psychic ability and/or bloggers.

Ladies and dentists will agree: Iverson has one of the best smiles to ever grin. This is uncontested. No argument! And he was very generous with it as well. Whether during a game, press conference, or photoshoot, Iverson was free with his cheesing.

If you're not good at juggling, then you're not juggling. I always tell people that. If you're dropping a lot of balls, then maybe you shouldn't juggle. And that's fine... there's different ways of working.

You're flawless when you embrace the things about you that you don't necessarily like, but you own them because they're yours.