Trevor Noah Quotes (30 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

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Born a Crime

Trevor Noah

Trevor Noah: 30 quotes18 likes

Famous Trevor Noah Quotes

“Growing up in a home of abuse, you struggle with the notion that you can love a person you hate, or hate a person you love. It’s a strange feeling. You want to live in a world where someone is good or bad, where you either hate them or love them, but that’s not how people are.”

Trevor Noah book Born a Crime

page 267
Born a Crime

“People don’t want to be rich. They want to be able to choose. The richer you are, the more choices you have. That is the freedom of money.”

Trevor Noah book Born a Crime

page 188
Born a Crime

“Maybe we need to change who gets the Nobel Peace Prize, and when. Because so many people have won the prize and they've benefitted from all of its prestige, and then they've gone on to not be peaceful. Like, maybe we should only give the Nobel Peace Prize to people after their career is over and they've passed away, right? It's at the end. We can call it the "Rest in Peace Prize." Then we know you're not gonna surprise us, you're not gonna hurt anyone. Unless someone trips on your grave.”

Trevor Noah

13 September 2017 The Daily Show Source: Visiblee at 05:10, Violent Buddhists Target Muslims in Myanmar: The Daily Show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2Qq-RPYb_I, YouTube.com, 13 September 2017.

“For any comedian, your life informs your point of view, the way you see the world. My comedy comes through the prism of race or class, because those are two worlds that collided for me growing up. And I guess that’s served me well, because those themes cross over countries and continents. We’re all still dealing with those issues today.”

Trevor Noah

On how his upbringing informs his comedy in “Life’s Work: An Interview with Trevor Noah” https://hbr.org/2018/09/lifes-work-an-interview-with-trevor-noah in Harvard Business Review (September-October, 2018) Personal life

“That's what I always loved about comedy, it is a way for us to just, you know, to numb the pain, to process what we're going through.”

Trevor Noah

Source: Trevor Noah Was Low Key In Black Panther https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC6V4gLAat4, June 2018

“I always believe that funny is serious and serious is funny. You don’t really need a distinction between them. If I’m doing something on stage and it evokes an emotion, then I might show that emotion, but I also don’t believe in being a preacher. If you have a point, that’s a bonus. But the funny has to come first, otherwise you shouldn’t call yourself a comedian.”

Trevor Noah

On never expressing anger in his comedy in “Trevor Noah interview” https://www.timeout.com/london/comedy/trevor-noah-interview in Time Out Personal life

Trevor Noah Quotes about people

“[…] Donald Trump sees the presidency the same way he sees one of his companies: its whole purpose is to serve him and only him. […] the whole pupose of the Justice Department, which he thinks is not to uphold law. No, no, no, it's to do the president's bidding. The same way he probably thinks the purpose of the Energy Department is to charge his iPhone. […] The only thing more shocking than his autocratic view of power is his willingness to talk so openly about it. In a strange way Donald Trump is both the most honest and dishonest president of all time. I figured it out, people. He's not cinnamon Hitler, he's Abraham Nixon.”

Trevor Noah

20 July 2017 The Daily Show Source: Visible at 06:48 President Trump Casually Makes Another Damning Admission: The Daily Show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hjec21YF6JM, YouTube.com, 20 July 2017.

“Race jokes are kind of like orcas: powerful and entertaining, but you put them on display in the wrong environment and people are going to get hurt, and the joke might die. Like this one just did. (12 April 2016”

Trevor Noah

The Daily Show Source: Visibile in Bill de Blasio's Questionable Joke http://www.cc.com/video-clips/g0ng5b/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-bill-de-blasio-s-questionable-joke, CC.com, 12 aprile 2016.

“Ben Carson: for people who like Donald Trump's ideas, but hate his charm and charisma. Ben Carson is like the drug free cocaine for people who don't wanna get high but just like snorting white powder.”

Trevor Noah

The Daily Show 8 October 2015 Source: Visible at 00:25 Ben Carson Blames the Victims http://www.cc.com/video-clips/2ybqd8/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-ben-carson-blames-the-victims, CC.com, 8 ottobre 2015.

“I think the most important thing is to instantly give them a sense of who you are and how you feel in that moment. If a speaker is nervous and tells the audience that, people immediately contextualize it and respond accordingly. If a performer is in a good mood or feeling wild and crazy and says so, I’ve found, the crowd will be good at matching that energy. So for me, the rapport is built by a genuineness conveyed as quickly as possible.”

Trevor Noah

On connecting with your audience in “Life’s Work: An Interview with Trevor Noah” https://hbr.org/2018/09/lifes-work-an-interview-with-trevor-noah in Harvard Business Review (September-October, 2018) Personal life

“In society, we do horrible things to one another because we don't see the person it affects. We don't see their face. We don't see them as people. Which was the whole reason the hood was built in the first place, to keep the victims of apartheid out of sight and out of mind. Because if white people ever saw black people as human, they would see that slavery is unconscionable. We live in a world where we don't see the ramifications of what we do to others, because we don't live with them. It would be a whole lot harder for an investment banker to rip off people with subprime mortgages if he actually had to live with the people he was ripping off. If we could see one another's pain and empathize with one another, it would never be worth it to us to commit the crimes in the first place.”

Trevor Noah book Born a Crime

page 222
Born a Crime

“People love to say, “Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” What they don’t say is, “And it would be nice if you gave him a fishing rod.””

Trevor Noah book Born a Crime

That’s the part of the analogy that’s missing.
page 190
Born a Crime

Trevor Noah Quotes about the trip

“In the hood, even if you're not a hardcore criminal, crime is in your life in some way or another. There are degrees of it. It's everyone from the mom buying some food that fell off the back of a truck to feed her family, all the way up to the gangs selling military-grade weapons and hardware. The hood made me realize that crime succeeds because crime does the one thing the government doesn't do: crime cares. Crime is grassroots. Crime looks for the young kids who need support and a lifting hand. Crime offers internship programs and summer jobs and opportunities for advancement. Crime gets involved in the community. Crime doesn't discriminate.”

Trevor Noah book Born a Crime

page 209
Born a Crime

“As the outsider, you can retreat into a shell, be anonymous, be invisible. Or you can go the other way. You protect yourself by opening up. You don't ask to be accepted for everything you are, just the one part of yourself that you're willing to share. For me it was humor. I learned that even though I didn't belong to one group, I could be a part of of any group that was laughing.”

Trevor Noah book Born a Crime

page 140/141
Born a Crime

“Growing up the way I did, I learned how easy it is for white people to get comfortable with a system that awards them all the perks. I knew my cousins were getting beaten for things that I'd done, but I wasn't interested in changing my grandmother's perspective, because that would mean I'd get beaten, too. Why would I do that? So that I'd feel better? Being beaten didn't make me feel better. I had a choice. I could champion racial justice in our home, or I could enjoy granny's cookies. I went with the cookies.”

Trevor Noah book Born a Crime

page 52/53
Born a Crime

Trevor Noah Quotes

“The more time I spent in jail, the more I realized that the law isn’t rational at all. It’s a lottery. What color is your skin? How much money do you have? Who’s your lawyer? Who’s the judge?”

Trevor Noah book Born a Crime

page 238
Born a Crime

“My mom raised me as if there were no limitations on where I could go or what I could do. When I look back I realize she raised me like a white kid - not white culturally, but in the sense of believing that the world was my oyster, that I should speak up for myself, that my ideas and thoughts and decisions mattered.”

Trevor Noah book Born a Crime

page 73
Born a Crime

“Of course Ben Carson advisors can't make him smart, you can't change its brain. That's a job for a neurosurgeon. It's the same when your barber has a #### haircut.”

Trevor Noah

18 November 2015 The Daily Show Source: Visible at 00:50 di Ben Carson's Public Breakup http://www.cc.com/video-clips/2ybqd8/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-ben-carson-blames-the-victims, CC.com, 18 novembre 2015.

“In life only three things are certain: death, Adobe updates and taxes.”

Trevor Noah

13 May 2016 The Daily Show Source: Visible at 00:05 #WeakDonald Trump Won't Release His Tax Returns http://www.cc.com/video-clips/cd7iyf/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah--weakdonald-trump-won-t-release-his-tax-returns, CC.com, 13 May 2016.

“ISIS without guns is just basically a blog.”

Trevor Noah

June 13th, 2016 Source: Visible at 05:00 Trevor Reacts to the Orlando Shooting http://www.cc.com/video-clips/o5lyhg/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-trevor-reacts-to-the-orlando-shooting, CC.com, 13 giugno 2016. The Daily Show

“Hey, son, what the hell is with your haircut? Did you see a paintbrush and say "I want that dude's look!"”

Trevor Noah

13 April 2016 The Daily Show Source: Visible at 1:30 North Korea's Letter to America http://www.cc.com/video-clips/0zxgxu/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-north-korea-s-letter-to-america, CC.com, 13 aprile 2016.

“Donald Trump didn't invent racism. Trump didn't invent islamophobia. And he didn't invent violence. All he did was put his name on them like he does with everything else.”

Trevor Noah

16 March 2016 The Daily Show Source: Visibile al minuto 06:00 Another Super Tuesday for Donald Trump http://www.cc.com/video-clips/my2sru/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-another-super-tuesday-for-donald-trump, CC.com, 16 marzo 2016.

“Juggling is such a white thing, as well, when you think about it. No, just the whole concept. You have so much stuff that, at some point, you are like: "I can't even hold all of this stuff! I'll have to throw some of it in the air!" That's probably how juggling started. Someone was like: "Wow, you have three things, but you only have two hands. Would you like to share something with me?" "No, no, I'll figure this out."”

Trevor Noah

9 marzo 2017 The Daily Show Source: Visible at 01:00 White People Are Having a Good Time in America http://www.cc.com/video-clips/sb2sj5/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-white-people-are-having-a-good-time-in-america, CC.com, 9 March 2017.

“The credits from the second Godfather are better than Godfather III. (14 April 2016)”

Trevor Noah

April 14th, 2016 Source: Visible at 01:50 More Reasons to Hate Ted Cruz http://www.cc.com/video-clips/s06t5t/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-more-reasons-to-hate-ted-cruz, CC.com, 14 aprile 2016. The Daily Show

“He really is a TV president. […] He loves the performance of doing things. But a lot of the time, nothing's actually being done. Essentially, Donald Trump wants to be president, but he doesn't want to do president.”

Trevor Noah

6 June 2017 The Daily Show Source: Visibile at 02:00 di Trump Touts More Phony Accomplishments: The Daily Show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY5IwndHDLQ, YouTube.com, 6 giugno 2017.

“Growing up as a young boy in Wakanda, I would see King T’Challa flying over our village, and he would remind me of a great Xhosa phrase: Abelungu abazi ubu ndiyaxoka, which means: ‘In times like these, we are stronger when we fight together than when we try to fight apart.’”

Trevor Noah

The Xhosa phrase used by Trevor Noah in this quote was a purposeful mistranslation with the correct translation being: "White people don't know that I'm lying."
The Oscars February 24th, 2019
Source: Can be found under "Trevor Noah's fake translation" https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-47356329

“At this point, it's not even a high-level controversy. This isn't House of Cards. Like, this isn't even Veep. It wouldn't even qualify for Blue's Clues.”

Trevor Noah

Source: The Daily Show July 11th, 2017'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwr7pEgPqk4
A Russian, an Email and an Idiot: Did Donald Trump Jr. Incriminate Himself?: The Daily Show

“That’s how a police state works - everyone thinks everyone else is the police.”

Trevor Noah book Born a Crime

page 25
Born a Crime

“In any society built on institutionalized racism, race-mixing doesn't merely challenge the system as unjust, it reveals the system as unsustainable and incoherent. Race-mixing proves that races can mix - and in a lot of cases, want to mix. Because a mixed person embodies that rebuke to the logic of the system, race-mixing becomes a crime worse than treason.”

Trevor Noah book Born a Crime

page 21
Born a Crime

“I spend most of my day screaming and then over time I get tired and then when I'm tired, I start thinking of the jokes.”

Trevor Noah