It wasn't until I moved to New York that I decided to make a conscious effort to be myself.

I approximated the Black Friday experience at home by hurling myself into a wall a number of times and then ordering online.

We only hear success stories. You don't hear about the hundreds and hundreds - the overwhelming majority that don't go anywhere. This is a more realistic portrayal of what happens in startups.

The plan was always to come to America, because Pakistan's a scary place. They don't have religious freedom. It's very poor, and there's a lot of violence and corruption.

Just because you saw a vampire doesn't mean that a snowman or a Loch Ness Monster also exists.

I think being funny had something to do with feeling like an outsider, not feeling cool - insecurity.

The whole religion of Islam is based on reward and punishment and reward and punishment, and it becomes a part of how you think of everything. Even yourself.

I thought of America as this crazy, happy, exciting place where everybody's rich and there's stuff everywhere. Compared to Pakistan, it's not untrue.

I was extremely shy and had a terrible fear of public speaking. But I had fallen in love with stand-up.

I am a very nerdy guy. I understand that it's easier to cast me as a nerdy guy than an action star - although I would love to be an action star!

It's not like I listened to music and then stopped. I still don't have a real appreciation for music because I didn't really start listening to it until my 20s.

A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.

Man's nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.

Well, I guess I am about the livest dead man you ever saw; although I was once asked to accept a coffin.

Mirth is the sweet wine of human life. It should be offered sparkling with zestful life unto God.

No change, no chance.

What makes bebop legitimate is the fact that when it was done, it was illegitimate.

Time only moves in one direction. Remember that. Things always change.

The less acting you have to do, the better, I think.

There are few so free from vanity as not to dictate to those who will hear their instructions with a visible sense of their own beneficence.

Building a successful life is much like building anything else: it should be thoroughly thought about in advance and then carried through to completion.