Top 90 Dave Chappelle Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “I want to tell my jokes. I want to have time with my children. I want to entertain people. And at one point, I’ll walk away from show business. But I don’t want to walk away empty-handed.”

— Dave Chappelle

52. “You can’t get unfamous. You can get infamous but you can’t get unfamous.”

— Dave Chappelle

53. “I think every group of black guys should have at least one white guy in it.”

— Dave Chappelle

54. “I was doing sketches that were funny but socially irresponsible. I felt I was deliberately being encouraged and I was overwhelmed.”

— Dave Chappelle

55. “Comedians by and large are some of the most sensitive people on earth. Even if they’re socially callous.”

— Dave Chappelle

56. “I have all these weird fantasies. Going coast-to-coast on my motorcycle and having random barbecues all over America. No show, no nothing.”

— Dave Chappelle

57. “Most people don’t know what it’s like to stand up there and speak their mind. I have a venue to do that. I get paid to do that. It’s not like I’m doing heavy lifting up there. It’s not like I’m solving the world’s problems. It’s like I’m hanging out with a bunch of people and it’s cool.”

— Dave Chappelle

58. “There’s a lot of people who don’t want anything from me but to laugh and have a good time. You see them at the show and they like – they dress up to come see your show and stuff. And they pack these auditoriums and it’s a lot of fun, man. It’s like, this is how I started, and it’s still fun for me.”

— Dave Chappelle

59. “Who goes from America to Africa for medical attention?”

— Dave Chappelle

60. “My wife asked me once if I weren’t a comedian what I would do. I couldn’t answer the question. I never imagined doing anything else.”

— Dave Chappelle

61. “Being famous is great, it’s not like bad or horrible or anything.”

— Dave Chappelle

62. “When I’m on stage, I get real happy there. Maybe that’s the only time in my adult life I feel like myself.”

— Dave Chappelle

63. “A celebrity, whatever I am, you get cut off sometimes from people just by circumstance.”

— Dave Chappelle

64. “I have angst in my life, but I’m like anybody. We all have angst in our lives that we pick up and fidget with and then we put down and look at some other things that make us feel good or enjoy our lives.”

— Dave Chappelle

65. “Something about New York, man: You can do more comedy there probably than you can anywhere in the world. If you’re interested in being funny, New York is the place to go.”

— Dave Chappelle

66. “Everyone around me says, You’re a genius! You’re great! That’s your voice! But I’m not sure if they’re right.”

— Dave Chappelle

67. “I got a lot of positive people around me.”

— Dave Chappelle

68. “I’m an introspective dude.”

— Dave Chappelle

69. “I’ve done 10 or 11 pilots for network television, which is ridiculous.”

— Dave Chappelle

70. “I’m happier in the way a guy gets happier when he starts to mature. It doesn’t make things easier, but I’m so much better at handling them.”

— Dave Chappelle

71. “Because I was surrounded by so much negativity at some point that it took me going back and doing stand-up to realize, you know, people really like me.”

— Dave Chappelle

72. “The way the people around you position themselves around you to get in your pockets and in your mind is infuriating to me.”

— Dave Chappelle

73. “The higher up I went, the less happy I was.”

— Dave Chappelle

74. “Comedy is a very approval-oriented field.”

— Dave Chappelle

75. “After a while, a joke, if you say it too much, just becomes contrived, or fake-sounding.”

— Dave Chappelle

76. “Once you been performing on the streets you can conquer any venue.”

— Dave Chappelle

77. “I’m famous today. People like me today. Might not like me tomorrow. You can’t count on it.”

— Dave Chappelle

78. “The only thing harder than leaving show business is coming back.”

— Dave Chappelle

79. “I still think people do have racial hang-ups, but I think one of the reasons I can joke about it is people are shedding those racial hatreds.”

— Dave Chappelle

80. “Whether it means having a show, or a movie, or just being on a stage, I need an avenue to say what I have to say.”

— Dave Chappelle

81. “My own life is accessible to people still. I could see a guy walking down the street and, even though I’m famous, I got more in common with this guy than, like, Brad Pitt.”

— Dave Chappelle

82. “Fame for me is like a place, a country I’m taking a tour through.”

— Dave Chappelle

83. “I don’t care if I ever work in TV again.”

— Dave Chappelle

84. “Sometimes you have to come out like a lion, so that you can be the lamb that you really are.”

— Dave Chappelle

85. “I want be a guest-star on as many television shows as I possibly can. I love television. The fact that television ultimately made me famous was very gratifying for me.”

— Dave Chappelle

86. “Stand-up is the kind of gig that’ll show you where you’re at.”

— Dave Chappelle

87. “Listen, here it is: Technically, I never quit. I’m seven years late for work.”

— Dave Chappelle

88. “I love the fact that I have a show where you can run over a kid and everyone busts out laughing.”

— Dave Chappelle

89. “I got real important relationships in my life that are very empowering relationships.”

— Dave Chappelle

90. “I care about the work I do. But I’m not going to say that money’s not an issue.”

— Dave Chappelle

91. “People don’t know what it’s like standing up there onstage, when you have a wall of people smiling at you.”

— Dave Chappelle

92. “I just like seeing people. I just like meeting people. I like finding out new walks of life and new ideas.”

— Dave Chappelle

93. “I’ve been a comedian since I was fourteen. But I’ve never really been a CEO.”

— Dave Chappelle

94. “There’s something about doing stand-up that’s cathartic.”

— Dave Chappelle

95. “Money is the fuel for choices.”

— Dave Chappelle

96. “To what extent do I have to participate in your self image?”

— Dave Chappelle

97. “The bottom line is no matter what happens to you, you got to keep going; and bitterness is quite cumbersome. Jokes is a way of shaking that off, processing something with the alchemy of levity.”

— Dave Chappelle

98. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to the United States, but if North Korea ever drops a nuclear bomb on this country, I swear to God I hope it lands in Hartford, Connecticut.”

— Dave Chappelle