JESSICA WILLIAMS

It's impossible to be perfect, and you won't do a good job if you're too focused on proving yourself to others.

My favorite place in the world is the Harry Potter tour near London.

I first fell in love with comedy when I'd visit my granny as a kid. Trips to her house meant staying up late drinking Coca-Cola and watching 'Saturday Night Live'.

Ultimately, when I deliver something, a lot of times it will be from a black woman's perspective, but other times it will be just from a satirical, goofy perspective.

Get more confidence by doing things that excite and frighten you.

You can learn so much just by observing.

You don't have to be African American to really enjoy 'Frisky Business'. But as far as being black, a lot of people in New York have been stopped and frisked, so that hits home for them.

I'm six feet tall. No one realizes that because on 'The Daily Show' I'm usually sitting.

The last thing I do before bed is think I should take my contacts out. Then I fall asleep.

There's truth in comedy, and that resonates with people of all races.

As far as diversity's concerned, there's me, there's Al Madrigal, there's Aasif Mandvi. But I'm not walking around feeling black all the time. That would stress me out.

Basketball would have been the natural sport to play, but it's a little too aggressive for me, so instead I dabbled in volleyball and some good old-fashioned Roller Derby.

I want to write and direct and kind of do my own thing.

I'm a young correspondent, so sometimes I'm just young. Sometimes I'm just straightforward.

I'm a middle child, so I have middle-child syndrome. With a middle child, you always have to take in everything and adjust and maybe compromise a little bit so you're able to see both sides of an issue. I'm also a Leo - I love astrology - so that affected me, just being a lion.

Don't try to fix anyone, especially not a dude. They're not going to change.

Allison Jones, a big casting director out there, was like, 'They're casting 'The Daily Show' right now - you should submit a tape.' I remember leaving school to go shoot an audition.

I'm a young person; sometimes I'm political, sometimes I'm not.

I focused on my career. I grew up super Christian, both my parents are ministers, so I did a purity ceremony when I was a teenager.

There is more of a demand, especially on the Internet and on Tumblr and Twitter, from women who are like, 'We want to see more of us on TV!'.

When I wake up in night sweats, that's what I'm thinking about: what if someone grabs me from my past and says, 'I heard you drag me to filth on your podcast.'

I have never been a 'hair person.' Growing up, my mom and my sister, who loved to get their hair done, would always give me a hard time about not getting mine done.

Post-'Daily Show' has been so busy, which I've been surprised about. We're basically independent contractors in a way. So you have one gig, and you're worried about never getting another gig again, or at least I do.

As I got older, I had to learn to not have people speak for me. It was the first time I recognized, 'Oh, sometimes people are going to condescend to me because I'm a woman, or sometimes people aren't going to give me opportunities because of the way I look.'

Height has been very, very central to the development of my personality.