Margaret Cho Quotes

It makes it very hard to say what you believe in and not be attacked for it. And it's not fair; I'm Korean, but I'm not supposed to talk about my experience and my life? It's unaccepting. ~ Margaret Cho

Maybe I wanted to hear it so badly that my ears betrayed my mind in order to secure my heart. ~ Margaret Cho

You have to have a very holler-y sensibility. So they [the audience] know there's something worth listening to. ~ Margaret Cho

If you are generous with your heart, you have no idea of the depth & breadth of love's reach. ~ Margaret Cho

I will never stop complaining. ~ Margaret Cho

My philosophy is, "murder the rapist in your mind so you stop killing yourself." I've seen, in my lifetime, that sexual abuse has turned into self-abuse. When I kill the rapist inside of me, I will stop killing myself. ~ Margaret Cho

My parents never really had that much money, so I kind of live in the same world that they do. ~ Margaret Cho

Where do people get off telling people what to do? It's their bodies. If you legalized sex work and legally protected the sex workers, you wouldn't see anything like human trafficking. All of that would be obliterated. ~ Margaret Cho

It's like your batteries get low, and you need to charge them on someone else's story. ~ Margaret Cho

I knew I was crazy because I was watching Jesus Christ Superstar and the part where Jesus carries the cross up the mountain, I actually said to myself, Wow! That must be a really good workout! Yeah, because you're doing arms and cardio! ~ Margaret Cho

That it is not the people who really feel that way, but it is people who have the most money to fire up these propaganda campaigns, these like, basically these lies that they are willing to lie to the public in order to manipulate them into doing what they want. And to me it doesn't make any sense. ~ Margaret Cho

I think reality television is such a special talent. ~ Margaret Cho

I think I started out okay but with AIDS came a great deal of silence about gayness and this period of lose and morning, but at the same time a kind of feeling like you wanted to get back into the closet because being gay was such a terrible thing at that point. ~ Margaret Cho

Started out, Funny, sexy, zaftig Margaret Cho ... What is zaftig? Isn't that German for big fat pig? I guess I was lucky- zaftig is kind of a nice word. It could have been, Funny, sexy, OBESE Margaret Cho. ~ Margaret Cho

Snooki is really beautiful and looks quite like Elizabeth Taylor in 'Cleopatra.' She has the same bone structure. I'm kind of obsessed with 'Jersey Shore.' People don't give them enough credit for how entertaining they are. ~ Margaret Cho

I don't like to criticize music and I had a really hard time picking out the song I hate for this because I end up seeing and working with musicians all the time. ~ Margaret Cho

I didn't appreciate the young woman that I was, or my young beauty, because I was so obsessed with the fact that I felt fat. It's never good to add to anybody else's suffering. It's an important topic to really get the gravity and the importance of - dealing with dignity. ~ Margaret Cho

You don't become a Republican until you lose all your baby teeth and fall down a lot and get the croup and then become angry and bitter. ~ Margaret Cho

There's vulnerability - so I have to make sure the audience is certain that I know what I'm doing. There's vulnerability there because my heart is open, but at the same time I definitely have a lot of "weapons" at my disposal. I have all the language, I have all of the moment - I have all of that to spar with somebody, to take anything on. ~ Margaret Cho

I am in love with Counting Crows. It is so manly and American. ~ Margaret Cho

I urge you all today, especially today during these times of chaos and war, to love yourself without reservations and to love each other without restraint. Unless you're into leather. ~ Margaret Cho

The newest victims of the nation's foreclosure crisis are pets, which is extremely distressing to me. ~ Margaret Cho

I have so much hate that it has turned into love. ~ Margaret Cho

I don't really know what 'selling out' is exactly. I would sell out if I could, but nobody's buying it. I would love to go mainstream, but my comedy is too edgy. It's always too dirty. It's always too filthy. I'm dying to sell out. But I love doing comedy, I love touring, and I think I would do everything for free. ~ Margaret Cho

I think the best way to get over your body issues is to just flaunt your body at every opportunity. ~ Margaret Cho

One of my first jobs was on a lesbian cruise. I was the ship comedian for the Lesbian Love Boat. ~ Margaret Cho

I always thought that people told you that you're beautiful-that this was a title that was bestowed upon you ... I think that it's time to take this power into our own hands and to say, "You know what? I'm beautiful. I just am. And that's my light. I'm just a beautiful woman." ~ Margaret Cho

You have to adhere to a certain morality, a certain level of decorum, or else you'll be punished and labeled. ~ Margaret Cho

I am always writing no matter what I am doing and no matter what it is for. ~ Margaret Cho

I really (became) very independent. I was start(ed) to write one-woman shows and mak(e) films and to me I think I really felt like my choice (was) more important than any kind of career goal. ~ Margaret Cho

No wonder all the great comedians had such destructive private lives ... After you get the audience into that kind of frenzy, and you are being worshiped like the false idol you are, how do you leave the stage and transition back into real life? ... What is there left to do but set yourself on fire? ~ Margaret Cho

Most conservatives also believe in the death penalty, but not abortion, which proves they like to procrastinate. ~ Margaret Cho

I punished myself and avoided my reflection in mirrors and any windows. I would see myself reflected back, and I would look away, trying to pretend I didn't exist, because I hated myself so much. ~ Margaret Cho

The incognito of lower class employment is an effective cloak for any dagger one might wish to hide. ~ Margaret Cho

I have learned to love that which is meant to harm me, so that I can stand in the way of those who are less strong. I can take the bullets for those who aren't able to. ~ Margaret Cho

When we're talking about feminism, I get sort of lost in the argument. Because as a woman of color, I don't know where I belong in this argument. Where do I say, 'I would be happy to have less money'? How do you fight for your rights when I'm super-grateful to be here at all? ~ Margaret Cho

I started [performing] so young that it might have just been that I kind of had to grow up and make people understand that I was worth listening to, even though I was a child. ~ Margaret Cho

I was raised to be self-conscious about weight. Then as I got older and started doing television, it became a career issue, like, 'You have to lose weight or you'll lose that job.' ~ Margaret Cho

Many of my contemporaries are atheists, and for good reasons. God isn't really the problem. Some of His followers are big assholes ~ Margaret Cho

I became a comedian because I didn't want to be bullied anymore. Onstage I was safe. ~ Margaret Cho

I'm not a body shamer. The word fat has been used to hurt me my entire life. ~ Margaret Cho

I love singing and that's kind of my new thing. ~ Margaret Cho

Silence is so often applauded and those who speak out are often called tasteless. ~ Margaret Cho

If you really care about children then why would you want to keep families from adopting them? ~ Margaret Cho

[Fur] is really ridiculous. It's outrageous. We're not living in igloos. We don't need to trade pelts anymore. There is this diabolical idea that fur is fashionable. It's not. It's death. There's no excuse for it. ~ Margaret Cho

I think I heard it [ Ferris Bueller's Day Off ] earlier. This was being played on a station in San Francisco called Live 105, which was a new wave station. It was one of the first stations to change its format in the early '80s. There was this wave of really strange music coming from Europe like Kraftwork and Freur. ~ Margaret Cho

I have permanent damage to my body because I wanted to be thin. ~ Margaret Cho

I feel like this song [Yello, "Oh Yeah"] was probably done in a couple of minutes in a studio. There was probably no thought behind it; they were just playing with some samples and threw it together. I feel like there's no dream behind the song. Usually there's a dream or some kind of passion attached to a song. This song feels very empty. It made a lot of money for the songwriters but at the expense of culture. ~ Margaret Cho

That's the nature of comedy - you always want to be improving and growing and changing with what's happening in the world. That's when comedy is most effective. ~ Margaret Cho

This was an era where I was going out every night seeing Sparks, Berlin, Duran Duran, and Split Enz. Amazing acts doing really weird stuff, and I was very open to music and letting it transform me. ~ Margaret Cho

I love tattooed women, maybe because they are uncontrollable, they are themselves to the point of drawing symbols of their power on their skin. Talk about owning your own body, being in your body, claiming yourself. I love it. When the world is in an uproar over whether women should have a choice or not when it comes to their own bodies, being tattooed is one of the most visible choices of all. ~ Margaret Cho

People are so sensitive about race that they can't hear someone speaking about their life in a very true way, or doing satire or political parody. ~ Margaret Cho

I thought I was so ugly for so long, and I wasted so much of my life on this dumb notion. ~ Margaret Cho

Try to have a good day today, wherever you are, whatever you do, whoever is near, if no one is near. Try to be happy, because you may not see tomorrow. There is someone this morning, who didn't wake up, who will never see this day. Try to feel lucky that this is not you. ~ Margaret Cho

Just because you are blind, and unable to see my beauty doesn't mean it does not exist. ~ Margaret Cho

The only thing that was sort of Asian [as a role model] was Hello Kitty. I don't want to model myself after Hello Kitty. She has no mouth. ~ Margaret Cho

I'm a survivor. But I'm also victim, too. Surviving has the connotation that you've been through it, you lived through it and that's wonderful - but a victim is what I was. "Survivor" is the more healing way to look at it. ~ Margaret Cho

I've worked with incredible producers who have also taken my voice and brought it to another level. I think I have some natural abilities, but it's the technique that I've been learning from the best that keeps me going. I'm really honored to do it. ~ Margaret Cho

I am so beautiful, sometimes people weep when they see me. And it has nothing to do with what I look like really, it is just that I gave myself the power to say that I am beautiful, and if I could do that, maybe there is hope for them too. And the great divide between the beautiful and the ugly will cease to be. Because we are all what we choose. ~ Margaret Cho

My life is anything but typical. ~ Margaret Cho

I use my work as catharsis. That's often the best thing that we can do, is to allow ourselves to rage because it's so rare that we get to. We're told to forgive - I don't want to! I don't want to forgive my abuser! I don't care to and I don't like that assumption that forgiveness makes me a better person. It's not authentic to me, my feelings and what I need. But everyone has their own way. ~ Margaret Cho

I think political correctness really does help us when it serves us but it doesn't help us when it silences us. ~ Margaret Cho

It's not the best between my family and me. There are so many crimes left unpunished, debts unpaid, white elephants in the middle of the room that no one will even offer a peanut to. We are in the red, emotionally speaking. ~ Margaret Cho

I'm not playing the race card. I'm playing the rice card. ~ Margaret Cho

I was lucky. I always had really great friends in my personal life, people always just knew who I was. It wasn't until I was in show business where that sort of changed or shifted at first. I have always had a great support network. I have had a lot of really wonderful, close friends. ~ Margaret Cho

There's this creepy connection between leather sex, Star Trek, and the Renaissance Fair. ~ Margaret Cho

My father tried to get me to be around gay people a lot when I was young. He owned a gay bookstore and it had a lot of gay literature and art books and he wanted me to be taken care of by the young gays and lesbians who worked for him. ~ Margaret Cho

I was in Toronto when they had a severe outbreak of SARS - you know, Severe Asian Racism Syndrome. I was in the airport and there were these big snowboarder guys and they had white masks around their necks, and as soon as they saw me, they put their masks on. So I went cough, cough, cough ... You wanna egg rorr? ~ Margaret Cho

Being called ugly and fat and disgusting to look at from the time I could barely understand what the words meant has scarred me so deep inside that I have learned to hunt, stalk, claim, own and defend my own loveliness. ~ Margaret Cho

Comedy was all I ever wanted. ~ Margaret Cho

I get up around 7 a.m. That's very early for a stand-up comic. Then I'll have breakfast with my husband, the artist Al Ridenour, take my three dogs for a walk and commence with my work. ~ Margaret Cho

It is tragic that people who are incarcerated are unable to vote. They are probably the most important voices to listen to because they can tell us what we need to change. ~ Margaret Cho

Something as important as marriage equality, which is now a constitutional right [in the USA], is something that cannot be denied. It's also very un-Christian, if you think about the way Christ was and Christ's teachings. This is not loving. This is anger. This is hatred. This is bigotry. And it's wrong. ~ Margaret Cho

When it comes to children, my mom doesn't believe in borders. She loves all children, and that's a good example of mothering the world. I need to do that, but before I can, I need to get over my fear of kids in the first place. ~ Margaret Cho

I could never make a joke about somebody unless I could say it to their face and they'd laugh. ~ Margaret Cho

I think I appeal to people who are living in the margins because of their identity and who need to feel freedom somewhere. ~ Margaret Cho

Success is meaningless if you can't sleep at night because of harsh things said, petty secrets sharpened against hard and stony regret, just waiting to be plunged into the soft underbelly of a 'friendship.' ~ Margaret Cho

Some people are that - more than a parent, more than a role model, more than anything less than a religion. ~ Margaret Cho

I think white people like to tell Asian people how they should feel about race because they're too scared to tell black people. ~ Margaret Cho

I want Jesus to come back and say 'THATS NOT WHAT I MEANT' - ~ Margaret Cho

My boyfriend and I live together, which means we don't have sex - ever. Now that the milk is free, we've both become lactose intolerant. ~ Margaret Cho

If you are a woman, if you're a person of colour, if you are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, if you are a person of size, if you are a person od intelligence, if you are a person of integrity, then you are considered a minority in this world.

And it's going to be really hard to find messages of self-love and support anywhere. Especially women's and gay men's culture. It's all about how you have to look a certain way or else you're worthless. You know when you look in the mirror and you think 'oh, I'm so fat, I'm so old, I'm so ugly', don't you know, that's not your authentic self? But that is billions upon billions of dollars of advertising, magazines, movies, billboards, all geared to make you feel shitty about yourself so that you will take your hard earned money and spend it at the mall on some turn-around creme that doesn't turn around shit.

When you don't have self-esteem you will hesitate before you do anything in your life. You will hesitate to go for the job you really wanna go for, you will hesitate to ask for a raise, you will hesitate to call yourself an American, you will hesitate to report a rape, you will hesitate to defend yourself when you are discriminated against because of your race, your sexuality, your size, your gender. You will hesitate to vote, you will hesitate to dream. For us to have self-esteem is truly an act of revolution and our revolution is long overdue. ~ Margaret Cho

Its funny because when I did feel like I came out and I just felt like I was being truthful to myself, (it was at) that point I became very successful. So you know, it took a true kind of facing that truth of myself and being honest, that was when the real kind of fame or whatever that kind of stuff happened for me. ~ Margaret Cho

If we have the opportunity to be generous with our hearts, ourselves, we have no idea of the depth and breadth of love's reach. ~ Margaret Cho

I don't understand the whole Christian conservativism doesn't make sense to me because I was raised very Christian and its kind of an odd thing but my parents, my family is also very conservative in their own way but I understand the bible and I studied Christianity very well and I don't see where the hatred of gays comes from because it really defeats Christ's purpose. ~ Margaret Cho

Toxic shock was ominous because they never really said how you got it, or why, or what happened when you did get it. It just struck you dead in the cunt. ~ Margaret Cho

Try to love someone who you want to hate, because they are just like you, somewhere inside, in a way you may never expect, in a way that resounds so deeply within you that you cannot believe it. ~ Margaret Cho

If you're going to be wrong, at least be hot. ~ Margaret Cho

Miley Cyrus made some chinky eyes
Standing behind an Asian guy
I don't know if this should fly
As if there wasn't enough to despise
I wasn't necessarily a fan of
Her, her dad, or Hannah Montana
I tend to prefer the songs of Rihanna
Racism against Asians is simply bananas!
Oh Miley!
Chinky eyes make you look wily
prejudice isn't thought of so highly
it doesn't make us all smiley
Why is there nothing that Asians can do?
To make fun of other races as easily as you
Why isn't racism against Asians taboo?
Why are we always so racially screwed!
All you have to do is pull at your face
To make your eyelids resemble our race
This kind of joke has no proper place
Miley Cyrus is a disgrace! ~ Margaret Cho

Humanity is a natural foil for inhumanity, and humanity is what will ultimately keep us going when all else has failed. ~ Margaret Cho

I don't want to bring myself down to place where there are hard and fast rules. In general I try to be compassionate, but that is dependent on the moment ultimately. ~ Margaret Cho

I'm writing a record of comedy songs. I'm doing all these collaborations with artists. I bring them lyrics and they write the music to it. ~ Margaret Cho

He must have been mad, because when things happen to women, we are supposed to remain silent. Our shame should make us want to act like nothing happened, maintain the decorum. I refuse to be silent, therefore I become some sort of criminal.
I think if we told our stories and said out loud what has happened to us, to warn other women, to comfort those who have had the same things happen to them, to show that we are not alone, the world would suddenly become a bigger and better place. ~ Margaret Cho

I love heavily tattooed women. I imagine their lives are filled with sensuality and excess, madness and generosity, impulsive natures and fights. They look like they have endured much pain and sadness, yet have the ability to transcend all of it by documenting it on the body ~ Margaret Cho

Sex in general, for me, is a lot of different aspects of humanity, not just my relationships. It's my relationship to myself and my body. ~ Margaret Cho

Why go through life feeling cheated? It does nothing but make you bitter. ~ Margaret Cho

Usually, if you smile at them and show some interest in the toy, they will give it to you. That's a straight up Democrat move! ~ Margaret Cho

To me, marriage is really important and what we build families on. That's why gay marriage is really important. ~ Margaret Cho

That we are selfish gives us the opportunity to gain the power so that, in time, we might be selfless. To give back what we have learned. To teach what we know, and shorten the journey for those who will come after us. ~ Margaret Cho

Interventions are really emotionally exhausting and I would never ever want to have one. In the same way, I would never want to have a surprise birthday party. That would be horrible. ~ Margaret Cho