Mike Birbiglia Quotes

It sounds so nerdy and pathetic, but what I always do on Sunday afternoon is bring my inbox down to zero, which is so sad. But e-mail has become like homework for adults. I'll have 141 messages from p...

You can't go to medical school and come out and be like, 'I'm going to be a dog catcher.' That would be so pointless.

About Author

Mike Birbiglia (; born June 20, 1978) is an American comedian, actor, director, producer and Emmy-nominated writer. He has written and performed a series of award-winning solo shows worldwide. His six solo shows, Sleepwalk With Me, My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend, Thank God For Jokes, The New One, The Old Man and the Pool, and The Good Life, enjoyed successful runs on and off Broadway and became hit Netflix comedy specials. Birbiglia also wrote, directed, and starred in the films Sleepwalk with Me (2012) and Don't Think Twice (2016). As an actor, Birbiglia has appeared in the films Trainwreck (2015), The Fault in Our Stars (2014), Popstar, A Man Called Otto as well as TV roles in Orange Is the New Black and Billions. He hosts the podcast Mike Birbiglia's Working it Out.

I feel that marriage can lead to the ultimate rejection and failure and divorce and things we all fear.

Saturday night is perfect for writers because other people have "plans.

I've actually always wanted to write like a one-person show that was sort of a romantic comedy - a show that was kind of cynical about romance and marriage but ultimately embraced it. Because I feel l...

Growing up, I was discouraged from telling personal stories. My dad often used the phrase 'Don't tell anyone.' But not about creepy things. I don't want to lead you down the wrong path. It would be ab...

I love pizza. I want to marry it, but it would just be to eat her family at the wedding.

Dopamine is a chemical released in your brain and your body when you sleep that paralyzes your body so you don't act out your dreams.

Someone said to me at a party once, 'Oh, yeah, you're a comedian? Then how come you're not funny now?' And I just wanted to say, 'Well, I'm just going to take this conversation we're having and then r...

I like 'Donnie Darko' it's a cool take on dreams and sleep.

...And so we go and I meet his parents. And it's a very strange thing meeting your girlfriend's boyfriend's parents for the first time. Part of you is angry for obvious reasons and part of you still w...

Directing a movie is a little bit like being back in student government and putting on the homecoming dance. You're like, 'You put up the streamers, and you hire the DJ, and you get the punch bowl.' S...

When I was starting out, I thought I would go into comedy and there would be a mentor, like the Philip Seymour Hoffman character in 'Almost Famous,' in my life, and there just wasn't. It was really fr...

I think that my regrets mostly have to do with my relationship with my ex-girlfriend. Every once in a while, you get those flashback memories of conversations you had with your exes, and you just, lik...

My dad goes through war novels like I go through boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

I never looked at my parents' marriage or really anyone who had been married more than 30 years and thought, 'I gotta get me some of that!'

As a comedian, you want people to like you. That's part of why you're there in the first place: You have this unquenchable need to be liked, and then when you divert from that and take a chance at doi...

There's something about small venues that's amazing for developing material. It's almost like you can not only hear people's response, but you can understand it. In bigger venues you lose that, but yo...

Starbucks is the last public space with chairs. It's a shower for homeless people. And it's a place you can write all day. The baristas don't glare at you. They don't even look at you.

I'm generally so disoriented during the week about what I'm doing and where I am - I travel a lot - that when I'm home on a Sunday, I typically try to sleep in as much as I can.