Hannah Gadsby Quotes

You instinctively discover how to entertain an audience.

I find it creatively satisfying to write material and say it out loud in a public place, whether or not anyone's listening.

I don't know what else I would do. I love entertaining people, I love communicating, I love an audience. I'm a real artist, right from the bottom of my toes to the top of my head.

Whether it means having a show, or a movie, or just being on a stage, I need an avenue to say what I have to say.

I enjoy my public speaking. That's what I love doing. It's what I'm good at.

When I was 20, I used to go around telling stories, and I knew where I was comfortable - onstage, talking, making 'em laugh and listen to the weirdest things. I liked being the center of attention.

Stand-up was my entree into the entertainment world. I didn't have to act out somebody else's words. I could just stand there with a microphone, and nobody would interrupt me. It's the most narcissistic thing you could probably do.

I got to a point where I wanted to have some dignity in what I'm saying onstage. I want people to hear what I'm saying, regardless of whether or not it gets a laugh. That became a lot more rewarding than straight acting could ever be for me.

The biggest impact that acting and theater had was, of course, stage presence, but it also had a big impact on my writing.

One place that I really feel comfortable is being a comedienne. I'm very socially inept. There's so many things that I can not do in life, and this is, like, the one thing that I have mastery over. It's my world. And anybody who's coming to the show, it's like they're coming because they know that this is my world.

I think the more you do this and the more comfortable you become on stage, you start speaking more and becoming more of a character in yourself.

I never used to tell jokes on stage. Now I'm cutting up jokes all night long.

I love being on stage, I love being able to tell a story, I love the fact that the audience listens and laughs at it. It makes me happy, and it's what I live for.

In fifth grade, we had to write a story and read it in front of the class. When I read mine out, the class were just belly laughing. And I remember being like, 'This is the coolest!' So I want to dedicate my life to trying to make people laugh. I can't imagine doing anything else.

I've always been compelled by some force to be a performer.

I am not interested in entertaining people. I think being an actor provides an opportunity to give people an experience they can connect to, reflect on, learn from, laugh at.

Having worked as both comedian and crime writer, the one thing I know is that both involve the delivery of a performance.

I think from a very young age I always have this desire to perform.

The beauty of me being on stage is I have a voice.

I want to get up there and tell entertaining stories but that are also to a certain extent clean.

I started doing standup when I was in college, and I would incorporate a lot of characters into my act.

I love my lecture tours. I get up onstage. I have my stack of books and a glass of water and a microphone. No podium, no distance between me and the audience, and I just talk to people and get all excited and tell a lot of jokes, and sing some songs, and read from my work and remind people how powerful they are and how beautiful they are.

I am the kind of person that wants to get up in front of crowds of strangers and perform monologues. To each their own.

Wrestling was like stand-up comedy for me. Every night I had a live audience of 25,000 people to win over. My goal was never to be the loudest or the craziest. It was to be the most entertaining.

I couldn't talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching.