It's important that when you do standup, you do small places like coffee shops and also big places like colleges. It helps you find the little nuances in your set that don't work, and you can shave off the excess.

Tig Notaro

Categorized in : You Work Important Coffee

Life can very genuinely and realistically pile things on. It doesn't dole out the heartache and pain, or joy, perfectly.

heartache pain heart

It's not the child's responsibility to teach the parent who they are. It's the parent's responsibility to learn who the child is.

parent responsibility children

I really wanted to, but I just didn't understand how people became comedians. I kind of thought it was something you were born into. And so I wanted to be a veterinarian or an architect. I wanted to be in a band, and for some reason I could understand how you could be in a band because I had guitars and all my friends played music. Comedy was a secret want, but it wasn't anything I pursued.

comedian guitar people

Not many people have had as much bad luck as I have, but not many people have had as much good luck, either.

good-luck fun people

I start crying when certain things come up, certain memories, certain feelings, and it's intense. But I think it's good for me - and therapeutic.

feelings memories thinking

As soon as I say I'm from Texas people say, "Oh, I'm sure the school was horrible" and they picture me wearing some barrel and suspenders and people are bucktoothed and ignoring me. But that's not the case. I just had zero interest. I wanted to finish my research in the woods or play guitar or go have a cigarette.

texas zero school

I'm now a pretty good mix of my mother and my stepfather because I'm in general pretty mellow. I'm not hyper-emotional. But there's also this side of me - my mother was an artist and very funny and a dancer and very wild and into fashion. My stepfather traveled a lot, and I kind of took on a role of parenting my mother a lot of times, because she was pretty hard to handle. A bit of a pistol.

fashion artist mother

When anything huge happens to me, I always think, this isn't my m... by Tig Notaro

When anything huge happens to me, I always think, this isn't my moment, this is a moment.

moments graduation thinking

I'm the luckiest unlucky person. by Tig Notaro

I'm the luckiest unlucky person.

unlucky persons

I love devastating movies, documentaries and hummingbirds (yes, i... by Tig Notaro

I love devastating movies, documentaries and hummingbirds (yes, in that order).

documentaries bird order

I can't believe I'm breathing and happy and thriving. by Tig Notaro

I can't believe I'm breathing and happy and thriving.

breathing i-can believe

I hold back parts of my life and experiences... I don't want to share anything just for the sake of sharing and exposing myself, but if something feels right and I feel inspired by the situations or moment I'll definitely share it. There are so many stories and experiences I have not shared, and I don't feel compelled to.

inspired moments share

There's something a lot more self-conscious feeling when there's cameras coming in for close-ups. It makes you very aware.

cameras self feelings

I didn't know whether I'd be attractive to anybody. by Tig Notaro

I didn't know whether I'd be attractive to anybody.

attractive knows

I was really into music. I started playing guitar also when I was nine. I wanted to be in the Beatles, even though John Lennon died the year I got a guitar and the Beatles broke up before I was born.

guitar nine years

I'm always going to do whatever I think is funniest. If something's dark, I'll do it. If it's a sock puppet, if it's a stool, I'll do it.

puppets dark thinking

I was talking and playing pranks and skipping school, failing pre... by Tig Notaro

I was talking and playing pranks and skipping school, failing pretty much every class I took.

class talking school

I didn't have an interest in school at all and was getting in tro... by Tig Notaro

I didn't have an interest in school at all and was getting in trouble all the time.

interest trouble school

When I couldn't get ahold of cigarettes, I'd roll coffee grounds into typing paper and smoke that and then vomit.

cigarette coffee paper

It was a free-for-all with music when I was growing up. My mother was a huge music fanatic so I was listening to everything from country to heavy metal to Indigo Girls to Elton John. I guess when I was really young I didn't like Willie Nelson, and she obviously loved him. Now I do too, I'm so thankful to her for playing his music nonstop.

girl mother country