Kumail Nanjiani Quotes

At which point should we let go and do what we want to do, and when should we submit to rules? Coming to terms with our true natures and who we really are has always been a fascination to humans. I know it fascinates me.

The time I felt most beautiful was probably when I was in college, and I was starting to accept who I was as a person. I wasn't hiding who I was anymore, and I was like, 'You know what? I'm growing up; I don't have to follow the rules anymore.'

Identity is not negotiable. An identity you have achieved by agreement is always a prison.

Every child is simple, just a clean slate. Then the parents start writing on his slate - what he has to become. Then the teachers, the priests, the leaders - they all go on emphasizing that you have to become somebody; otherwise, you have wasted your life. Just the opposite is the case. You are a being. You need not become anybody else. That is the meaning of simplicity: remaining at ease with one's being, and not going on any track of becoming - which is unending.

I've had so many moments where seeing other women be fully and truly and authentically themselves, and express that, has given me permission. Once you see it happening, you're like, "Oh, I have permission to do that, too."

I hope one day I will be able to be completely myself. Maybe I'll be wilder.

This wasn't the person he'd thought he was, or would have chosen to be if he'd been free to choose, but there was something comforting and liberating about being an actual definite someone, rather than a collection of contradictory potential someones.

To be at acting school, it was kind of the first time you felt the freedom to be as much of yourself as you wanted. People weren't going to judge you.

Personally, coming out was one of the most important things I've ever done, lifting from my shoulders the millstone of lies that I hadn't even realized I was carrying.

When I first got into the league, I tried to fit in. Now I don't care.

You don't want to spend your life explaining yourself.

Be yourself is about the worst advice you can give to some people.

Really rejoice in being yourself. Have your own drumbeat.

The truth sets you free. It's a very liberating thing, when you say this is who I am warts and all and then you can just get on with life. It's amazing.

I always tried so hard to fit in, and then I figured out that I didn't want to fit.

Now all of a sudden I'm so less interested in pretending to be a lot of other people, and much more interested in being me.

Nothing goes further toward a man's liberation than the act of surviving his need for character.

Yeah, it's nice to look up to people, but the more you try to be somebody else, the less you are of yourself.

It took me 30 years to figure out who I really am, as a person, and who I want to surround myself with. I was very much the kind of person who would just meld in with whatever group I was near.

Everyone kept telling me, Just be yourself. Be yourself. I kept thinking, there's got to be more to it than that!

Get to know the real you, rather than try to look like or dress like those around you.

Often we're recreating what we think we're supposed to be as human beings. What we've been told we're supposed to be, instead of who we authentically are. The key about the creation of full self-expression is to be authentically who you are, to project that.

I realize it's a cliche, almost, that coming out of the closet is a very healthy and empowering thing to do, but for me, it really has been a truly wonderful thing.

Life is very, very short, and you can choose to live it how you want. You can choose to dumb yourself down and not express yourself just so you can fit in, just so people won't dislike you.