Quotes & Jokes by Dave Chappelle / page 7
The way the people around you position themselves around you to get in your pockets and in your mind is infuriating to me.
I get a little heated when I talk about the past. But I wanted to be clear - I'm not mad at anybody - not anymore.
There was something really serendipitous that was happening, with some kind of energy that things would ultimately just work out, sometimes better than when you plan.
Because I was surrounded by so much negativity at some point that it took me going back and doing stand-up to realize, you know, people really like me.
When I'm on stage, I get real happy there. Maybe that's the only time in my adult life I feel like myself.
Like, see, I'd never vote for George Bush Junior, but I don't know anything about his politics. All I know about that George Bush Junior is that that guy sniffed cocaine. That's right. Now, listen, we can't have that shit in the White House. That may be fine for a mayor; but goddammit, not the White House! The stakes are too high. He'd be sellin' nuclear secrets for 20 or 30 dollars and shit.
I felt in a lot of instances I was deliberately being put through stress because when you're a guy who generates money, people have a vested interested in controlling you.
I've been a comedian since I was fourteen. But I've never really been a CEO.
I figured, let me just cut myself off from everybody, take a minute and pull a Flintstone, stop a speeding car by using my bare feet as brakes.
If you don't have the right people around you and you're moving at a million miles an hour you can lose yourself.
You know, be able to do something great in your life, you're gonna have to realize your failures. You're gonna have to embrace them and figure out how to overcome it.
By the numbers, this was the worst way to have done it. He couldn't think straight. It was fight or flight - and he chose flight.
I've done 10 or 11 pilots for network television, which is ridiculous.
We just jumped out and started shooting with the band, and then one thing led to another. You see it unfold in the movie, but by the end of just hanging with them we had decided, 'Why don't we have them come to Brooklyn?' It was pretty awesome.