Amy Poehler Quotes

“Creativity is connected to your passion, that light inside you that drives you. . . . Your creativity is not a bad boyfriend. It is a really warm older Hispanic lady who has a beautiful laugh and loves to hug.”

“I find that, in general, the amount of sharing men do with each other in one year is about the same as what I share with my female friends while we wait for our cars at the valet.”

“In a recent Valentine's Day posting on her fan website, Britney Spears says that - oh, who cares?”

“[At Boston College] I started working on the kinds of skills that you need for comedy. It's about being creative and learning to use your gift for being able to let loose and be very unself-conscious. It took me time though before I was really able to get comfortable doing that.”

“I think real life couples on screen are kind of deadly. For the most part, they're kind of deadly. You'd be surprised. Unless they're falling in love onscreen for the first time, you don't have quite the same energy for some reason.”

“If you can speak about what you care about to a person you disagree with without denigrating them or insulting them, then you may actually be heard.”

“Other people are not medicine.”

“Great people do things before they’re ready. They do things before they know they can do it.”

“So, if you're doing good longform with talented people than you can step out and you can be the president or a construction worker and people accept that. It's really the roles you give yourself.”

“Sticking up for ourselves in the same way we would one of our friends is a hard but satisfying thing to do. Sometimes it works.”

“Stop whining about getting old. It's a privilege. A lot of people who are dead wish they were still alive.”

“In my twenties I tried cocaine, which I instantly loved but eventually hated. Cocaine is terrific if you want to hang out with people you don't know very well and play Ping-Pong all night. It's bad for almost everything else.”

“If you can surf your life rather than plant your feet, you will be happier.”

“Our ego is a monster that loves to sit at the head of the table, and I have learned that my ego is just as rude and loud and hungry as everyone else's. It doesn't matter how much you get; you are left wanting more.”

“Sleep helps you win at life.”

“Telling me to relax or smile when I'm angry is like bringing a birthday cake into an ape sanctuary. You're just asking to get your nose and genitals bitten off.”

“When you're betrayed there's a period of shame and then there's always forgiveness.”

“Try to keep your mind open to possibilities and your mouth closed on matters that you don't know about. Limit your 'always' and your 'nevers.'”

“I think we should stop asking people in their 20s what they 'want to do' and start asking them what they don't want to do. Instead of asking students to 'declare their major' we should ask students to 'list what they will do anything to avoid.' It just makes a lot more sense.”

“Believe me, blond hair can take you really far, especially with the older men. It can really distract from the face. I am convinced I could have had sex with both Tony Bennett and John McCain if we weren't each happily married at the time we all met.”

“I think if I have established anything in my book, it's that a key element of being my friend is being comfortable with my forced fun.”

“Anger and embarrassment are often neighbors.”

“Too often we women try to tackle chaos that is not ours to fix.”

“I think chemistry is about not acting, but reacting, and not talking, but listening.”

“Nice manners are the secret keys to the universe.”