Maz Jobrani Quotes

I'm Greek-American, and I come from an immigrant-type background, and Greek-American parents want you to be a doctor or a lawyer. Because that's how you make money, and it's very respectable.

I didn't get rich and famous, but I do what I love.

My mother and father were supportive. But in an Italian family, you kind of work with your hands, or you are an engineer or a doctor. But an actor was something they couldn't get hold of. They were afraid I wouldn't be able to make a living, and for many years, they were right.

In many Asian households, to not go on to higher education, that's like a big no-no. I know my parents' discouragement was for my own protection, and I'm really close to them now, but they didn't understand that there is value in this. That's because they didn't know.

I haven't mowed a lawn in quite a while, but I remember hating that when I was growing up. To please Dad, you have to get it right, and that's the thing. You have to please Dad.

Had I not made it big, my family would have told me to recheck my decision. Now that I am successful, there is no way. They have to accept it gracefully.

My dad saw my husband's boss at a conference, and he said to stop paying my husband until we produce children.

No matter where you are from, no matter what your background is, no matter what your socioeconomic status is, every person can achieve his or her dreams.

You're taught that it's not very likely for you to become successful... that odds are you're going to be a struggling artist for the rest of your life.

I grew up in a rural area called Vega Baja and I'm the first of so many talented people in this area to make it out. I take great pride to represent where I come from and I am able to show my fans, and everyone who listens and watches me, that anything is possible.

Because my parents are Muslim, there's no doubt they wished I would marry someone Muslim.

Your fear that your parents will actually kill you for dropping out of college is something that I think a lot of children of immigrants would maybe relate to.

I think there's always an expectation when you're a first generation, especially a first-generation Nigerian, of sort of being a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer. And so, you know, sort of my initial pursuits into the arts and that I was going to pursue film as a career didn't confuse them, but it was definitely something that they were scared about.

In school, all my teachers and my mum were super routing for me to study at Oxford. I picked music as a career choice, and this didn't sit too well with them!

I thought I had everything going for me. I wasn't listening to nobody. And my dad was like, 'Uh-uh, you can't make money from music. You have to be a doctor, a lawyer, engineer. Something that's going to do something for this world. Music doesn't do anything.' And I had to fight that, his passion, and fight the society that I was from.

I didn't know anything about the fashion industry until I met the stylist Simon Foxton on a Tube. I was 16, on my way to Kingsway College, and then my whole world opened up. Before that, like in every African family, you are meant to be a lawyer.

I don't want to compete in mother's field.

I'm used to taking risks - my career was a risk. Being a stand-up comic is not something that's normally accepted when your mother is Filipino.

I think the whole 'tiger mom' thing is a very common trope. People like to show Asian moms giving pressure, but they don't really show the love that comes with it.

I often make a joke of my parents, because I come from a Nigerian background and there's a stereotype in the Nigerian community that all of us are going to be doctors and lawyers, and that's just how it is. But upon reflection, my parents were always really supportive of me doing music.

It doesn't matter how big the shows are, as long as I'm making a living playing music. That's all that matters to me.

I want young girls to know that their passions are important and that they should pursue them, regardless of whether or not they think that they'll be successful in terms of the mainstream.

I've really never let my age get in the way of my music.

For a lot of children of immigrants, what happens is your parents want you to do something very linear that they can understand. I had an aptitude in sciences and never really questioned it.

Making a living doing something you love is my idea of happiness.