Michael Ian Black Quotes

I'm not running for office. I just want people to come to my stuff and escape and see me as a character, not as anything else.

I'm always playing a role, whether it's the role of the mayor, the role of a news anchor, or a role of a crazy talk-show host. But there was a specific function. 'On Dancing With The Stars', I had nothing to do but be me, schlepping around the floor. And when I host 'America's Got Talent', that's really me just talking to regular folks.

It's very easy to confuse Sean Connery with James Bond. Sometimes in the entertainment industry, people believe the cake is more real than the baker.

I find it very hard to play a part, then take it off like a cheap suit and become Mr Normal - Mr. Nice Guy.

I became acutely aware of how important it is to separate the difference between who you are and who the character you're playing is.

There are so many myths out there about Marianne Faithfull, I had to, um, detach. But I can turn it on because Marianne Faithfull is really an attitude, you know.

Even on the stage, I've played a bit of a persona, and the persona I played was a much brasher, more arrogant, less aware, less educated version of me.

You can't identify 100% with your character.

I never tried to put myself in situations where I had to be anything other than what people saw on TV.

When I am doing a fictional show, I become someone else. Reality shows keep you close to who you really are.

I'm not a star, I hate that word, and I'm an entertainer. Stars fall, you know, I'm an entertainer. I want to be known as an entertainer.

When I first started comedy, before I kind of gained any national prominence, I - in a weird way - went back to that. Marc Maron had me on WTF making fun of me about that when I first opened for him. I had this very kind of hip-hop bravado to me, and I realized that now I've let some of that go in my stage presence, that maybe that was because I had dropped that completely from my life, and when I got onstage I sort of rekindled it. And I think now that it was perhaps a defense mechanism that was left over from those days, which I think is kind of interesting.

People just - they don't really know me. They see me on "The Simple Life," they think that's really who I am.

I love to work. I love doing standup.

I loved doing the 'King of Queens', I have never had so much fun doing a show. People got to see a different side of me.

I play a character every day of my life, and I don't want to play a character as myself. They can judge me as an actress, not as a person. I'm not a spokeswoman for Anna.

Who I am on stage is very, very different to who I am in real life.

I wanted to be famous for my music and my talent, and I always wished I could cut it out when I left the stage.

I do not want to play a character who is exactly like me.

I think I'm always adopting a persona. That's how I look at pop music. I don't feel like I have to be myself. I feel like I have to be true to myself, but I don't have to show an exact picture of who I am.

Dandyism is a lie which reveals the truth, and the truth is that we are what we pretend to be.

I think the whole reason I act is because it's much more fun to be somebody else. I'm pretty boring.

It's hard to actually take details from your personal life and apply them a scene because, as much as you can identify with a feeling, you just get muddled. As soon as you start bringing your own stuff in, it's like, 'No, that's not right.' You're playing a different person. You can relate, but you have to leave that stuff at the door.

People seem to sometimes have a difficulty drawing that line between the character and the person.

Just getting to wake up and play somebody else for an entire day is just an amazing thing.