Ted Lieu Quotes

Humor is my default mode.

Irony is a great tool to deal with things. It's an intellectualization, a way to go above things, which can work.

I think comedy is an angry art form; it's an outsider art form. Anger and comedy are really connected. If I'm angry about something I will try to think about something funny about it to lighten the load of the anger and cope with the anger.

There's certainly a portion of my brain that is always tuned to making wry observations about the world, but that portion of my brain was alive and well before Twitter.

Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.

Frustration is an interesting emotional state, because it tends to bring out the worst in whoever is frustrated.

If someone breaks your heart, just punch them in the face. Oh sure, it seems obvious now, but you'd be amazed at how many people don't think of it when it's relevant. Seriously, punch them in the face and go get some ice cream.

I have a sack of hate mail that I want to respond to. One day, when I’m tired or tipsy, I will respond and tell them what I think.

At first the kid kicking the back of my airplane seat was enraging. Then I imagined it was a broken massage chair and I kinda liked it.

I just tell jokes, and I think a lot of people take it too seriously. It's not that I don't have things that I'm angry about in the world, and I think most decent human beings are upset about things, and even upset about things in their own country, but I'm not a particularly unhappy fellow.

When I first set out to ruin SNL, I didn't think anyone would notice, but I persevered because - like you trying to do a nine-piece jigsaw puzzle - it was a labour of love.

They’d say, ‘If you play the record backwards, you can hear evil things like 'grrrr!'’ and I would think, ‘Geez, I didn’t know the devil sounded like that. I thought he was coherent like the rest of us.’

Far more quickly than reason and logic, irony can penetrate rage and puncture self-pity.

I try my best to really think about things before I react and respond.

I had used my sense of humor; I had called it proportion, perspective. But perspective is distance.

I learned that getting mad was easier than being sad.

Ma'am, when I got up this morning, I didn't want to be jackass. You just pushed my jackass button.

I think comedy is a really, really good tool for trying to say something.

I enjoy my anger, it’s the only hobby I have.

We manufacture anger to give ourselves the illusion of power when we feel weak and helpless.

Like anyone else, I too have the potential for violence; I too have anger in me. However, I try to recall that anger is a destructive emotion. I remind myself that scientists now say that anger is bad for our health; it eats into our immune system. So, anger destroys our peace of mind and our physical health. We shouldn’t welcome it or think of it as natural or as a friend.

Anger was better than tears, better than grief, better than guilt.

Too bad the things that make you mad are my favorite things.

I think that sometimes people [who overreact or lash out] will hang on to their point just because they're so embarrassed that they made it. They won't set it down because they are the authors of these [disproportionate responses] and they have a lot to be embarrassed about.

For thirty years now, in times of stress and strain, when something has me backed against the wall and I'm ready to do something really stupid with my anger, a sorrowful face appears in my mind and asks... "Problem or inconvenience?" I think of this as the Wollman Test of Reality. Life is lumpy. And a lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat, and a lump in the breast are not the same lump. One should learn the difference.