62 Quotes by Ramy Youssef

My job is to show our humanity, and the only way to be leading with that sort of humanity is to lead with the problems that a family like this might be encountering and putting those on display.

There's a billion and a half Muslim experiences. All I can give you is my one weird, self-examining perspective.

All I had growing up was like 'Aladdin,' maybe I could be animated - or terrorist roles.

I think showing people being messy and showing them being wrong and showing them in their humanity is something that we can do, but it becomes difficult because there's this weight put on comedy to be part of change and I'm like, 'I don't think it changes anything.'

The only thing I would tell my younger self is, 'Don't pay a lot of money for head shots.' There's always some dude in Brooklyn that's like, 'Dude, this is gonna get you the job.' And he convinces you you've got to pay $700. You don't! Your head shot doesn't matter!

The stories I always see about a first-generation kid trying to erase where they came from, or trying to just be white, I would watch those shows or movies and I was like, 'I don't get this.' This isn't how I feel.

I didn't want 'Ramy' to be a commercial, like 'Hey, Muslims are good!' We're underrepresented, so the instinct when we get an opportunity like this is to show people that we're good, that we have the same shared values. What's more important to me is showing that we have the same flaws.

In general, the Arab world is an artistic hub that has such a variety, whether it be music, film, poetry.