Issa Rae Quotes

#1. I really want to be the black Tina Fey, where I just am able to produce my own content and produce other content for other minority filmmakers and put their voices on screen and basically be able to have free range to produce.

Issa Rae

#2. I don't like to be overexposed. Too many articles, too many tweets, too many posts, I just don't like that. But at the same time, we live in a culture where that's almost necessary. People want content and they want their stuff when they want it.

Issa Rae

#3. You know, even with the 'Awkward Black Girl' episodes, they come out once a month. That's great for me, it's comfortable, it gives each time to digest, time for new people to get on to it and caught up, but oftentimes I have people who are almost demanding a higher output from me.

Issa Rae

#4. It's a bit cliche, but you can't go wrong by writing what you know. Even if you're a horrible writer, your own knowledge and experience is unrivaled. Nobody knows what you know like you know what you know. The way you see things is pretty unique.

Issa Rae

#5. The Internet has provided small communities for racism online, and people feel free to do it. Ultimately, there should be some consequence - if you promote your racism online then there should be a consequence.

Issa Rae

#6. I thrive on obstacles. If I'm told that it can't be told, then I push harder.

Issa Rae

#7. I think that television and the web are fusing anyway, so I think that ultimately whatever I do, I'm going to blend the two forms.

Issa Rae

#8. I would love 'Awkward Black Girl' to be on television, with the right team of people who understand and get it. If 'Awkward Black Girl' could make it to HBO starring a dark-skinned black girl, that would be revolutionary.

Issa Rae

#9. Respectfully, 'Awkward Black Girl' was never meant to be politically correct. We poke fun at ignorance.

Issa Rae

#10. I'm transitioning to television and film, but ultimately, I want to have a stronger presence on the web and be able to curate the content that I want to see. To bring attention to other filmmakers and writers.

Issa Rae

#11. I never really had to put much thought into my race, and neither did anybody else. I knew I was black. I knew there was a history that accompanied my skin color, and my parents taught me to be proud of it. End of story.

Issa Rae

#12. Who I was was not acceptable to black L.A. youth: the way I spoke and my sense of humor. Everybody else had relaxers and pressed hair. I wore my hair in an Afro puff. Nappy. The way I dressed. It was all about name brands at the time in L.A. I had no idea. All those things, I failed miserably at.

Issa Rae

#13. I hate to say it but I hate black humor. I feel like a Klan member saying it, but it's just not funny.

Issa Rae

#14. 'Awkward Black Girl' is spreading to all the right people because of word of mouth and social networks. I'm so grateful.

Issa Rae

#15. As a teenager, my blackness was also questioned by some of the life choices I made that weren't considered to be 'black' choices. For example, joining the swim team when it is a known fact that 'black folk don't swim'; or choosing to become a vegetarian when blacks clearly love chicken.

Issa Rae

#16. My first web series, 'Dorm Diaries,' was a realistic mockumentary about what it was like to be black at Stanford University. I'm black and I went to Stanford. Boom. Easy.

Issa Rae

#17. People are willing to support and watch web series as a legitimate form of entertainment.

Issa Rae

#18. There's so many, 'no, black people aren't like that' barriers in mainstream media.

Issa Rae

#19. It was jarring to be berated for 'acting white' when I was placed in a predominantly black middle school in Southern California. I was also chubby, into boys who weren't into me, and tried too hard to fit into this 'blackness' I was supposed to be.

Issa Rae

#20. Part of the allure of watching characters on-screen is to be able to put yourself in his or her shoes or to be able to relate to what he or she is going through or what he or she is thinking.

Issa Rae

#21. Growing up as a young black girl in Potomac, Maryland was easy. I had a Rainbow Coalition of friends of all ethnicities, and we would carelessly skip around our elementary school like the powerless version of Captain Planet's Planeteers.

Issa Rae

#22. Mainstream media has convinced people that black people aren't relatable. So when a Jewish person comes up to me and is all, 'Oh man, I love that one scene from Episode 3, I watch it over and over again,' I'm so happy. Because that's what I want.

Issa Rae

#23. Every black film feels like it's Tyler Perry, and that just needs to stop. But people seem to slowly be looking for what else is out there - 'Is there something else besides this type of humor?' 'I'm tired of seeing men in dresses.'

Issa Rae

#24. Black and awkward is the worst, because black people are stereotyped as being anything but awkward in mainstream media ... Black people are always portrayed to be cool or overly dramatic, anything but awkward.

Issa Rae

#25. Every time I'm recognized in public, I'm super grateful and appreciative, but I also get hot and nervous.

Issa Rae

#26. It's one thing when other African-Americans try to threaten my race card, but when people outside of my ethnicity have the audacity to question how 'down' I am because of the bleak, stereotypical picture pop culture has painted for me as a black woman? Unacceptable.

Issa Rae

#27. The web presents an opportunity to showcase any character your sick mind desires. Want to create a cross-dressing, deaf/mute, corrupt politician who has a soft spot for saving children? Go for it!

Issa Rae

#28. The very definition of 'blackness' is as broad as that of 'whiteness,' yet we're seemingly always trying to find a specific, limited definition.

Issa Rae

#29. I'm a social media addict.

Issa Rae

#30. I'll stick to finding the funny in the ordinary because my life is pretty ordinary and so are the lives of my friends - and my friends are hilarious.

Issa Rae

#31. I used to love being the class clown. I loved to make jokes and make people laugh. There was a set of students who would find it funny. But the cool students were like, 'Eeew!'

Issa Rae

#32. People are tired of mainstream media's limited and confined portrayal of people of color.

Issa Rae

#33. I personally don't feel any pressure to make jokes about multiple baby-fathers and stereotypical black jokes, because one, that's just not my life, and two, I wouldn't even sound right talking about those things.

Issa Rae

#34. I wouldn't be anywhere without the Internet.

Issa Rae