Be as honest with yourself as you possibly can. And it's not going to work for everybody, and I know you're going to be afraid of that, but please don't worry about being accepted by everybody. The people who like you and want to be around you, that's what matters, and that's what's healthiest for yourself.
Hasan MinhajI will say that the thing that I use too much, and I need to stop, but the F-word is pretty great. When you say it, it's so viscerally strong. It also serves as a great punctuation point - it can really emphasize how dumb something is.
Hasan MinhajIf I want people to be empathetic to my struggle - they don't see hate crimes at the mosque, they don't see people screaming at their cousins, brothers, or sisters who wear a hijab to "go back to your country" - I have to do the same.
Hasan MinhajWhen people were like, "Oh, wow, Donald Trump is so crazy. That's so nuts, what's happening?" in the 9 a.m. meeting, Jon Stewart was like, "No, I've seen this before, in Robert Mugabe. I've seen Trump as an African dictator. You guys don't know about nationalist rhetoric all over Europe?" "No, I thought we were the center of the world." He has the ability to actually talk about that in a real way: "Oh, I've been there. I've talked to people there. This is just the remix on stuff that's been brewing for three, four years." That's something very special.
Hasan MinhajAt first, it was really weird after being a touring stand-up comedian that wears just jeans and a shirt. But now, it's almost like when you go from Clark Kent to Superman: "All right, I've got to go put on a suit and interview Justin Trudeau." It feels like it's part of the process. Oddly enough, I've been in enough places - they sometimes send you to places that are a bit scary - that I know how to run in a suit. Like, run fast.
Hasan Minhaj