For me, so far, confidence has been a journey, not a destination.
Jessica Williams
I'm a middle child, so I have middle-child syndrome. With a middle child, you always have to take in everything and adjust and maybe compromise a little bit so you're able to see both sides of an issue. I'm also a Leo - I love astrology - so that affected me, just being a lion.
Get more confidence by doing things that excite and frighten you.
I love relationships; they fascinate me.
I'm a tomboy, but I really love doing my makeup - I find it relaxing and grounding. With 'The Daily Show,' it was easier for me to do my own makeup. In the beginning, I watched a lot of YouTube tutorials. You find a beauty blogger who has your skin tone, and pretty much everything they use will look good on you.
I don't really do stand-up.
I can be pretty harsh and judgmental. I'm a very harsh and judgmental person. I like morals, right and wrong. I like to see things in black-and-white when I can, so I will hold a lot of guys to an impossible standard.
It's impossible to be perfect, and you won't do a good job if you're too focused on proving yourself to others.
I was always told that I acted too white. I was always told that I was going to date a white guy - which, in fairness, was true: I do have a white boyfriend. So they weren't entirely wrong, but all of those things were really damaging.
The black experience for me has been very interesting. Some days, I wake up, and I feel really black. Some days, I'm like, 'This is me. I'm black. Black Lives Matter. Black pride. Look at my cocoa skin.' I just feel it's my being.
People have their guard down when they're laughing, so they're open to tougher conversations they wouldn't necessarily have. If somebody is guarded while laughing, they're a weirdo.
I live in Brooklyn; I live in Clinton Hill. I love it there.
I wasn't prepared to be so... arrested by Jon Hamm.
I used to think men were these idiots who just yelled at you on the street. But, part of my maturing was realizing that not all men are evil or monsters.
I'm a young person; sometimes I'm political, sometimes I'm not.
I live in Brooklyn, and there's so many interracial couples in Brooklyn. In Brooklyn, you don't talk about race like that.
That's how me and my friends are. We love our personal relationships, but we have things we want to accomplish.
There's such an adrenaline rush for me on stage and having all these people look at you. There's an adrenaline rush from not having things written down, too.
Basketball would have been the natural sport to play, but it's a little too aggressive for me, so instead I dabbled in volleyball and some good old-fashioned Roller Derby.
There is more of a demand, especially on the Internet and on Tumblr and Twitter, from women who are like, 'We want to see more of us on TV!'.
I was doing a college show for the first time, and there was this 20-year-old gay male who's been diabetic his entire life. He said, 'I really wanna get into stand-up.' I was like, 'Oh, my God, do you realize how interesting and inherently funny you are? Go do all the comedy that you wanna do.' I care about that.
There's a really positive side of being an introvert - you really pick up on things a lot more than your extroverted counterparts.
You don't have to be African American to really enjoy 'Frisky Business'. But as far as being black, a lot of people in New York have been stopped and frisked, so that hits home for them.
I enjoy romantic comedies in general. I like them when they're bad, I like when they're good.
Oh, I'm obsessed with the Kardashians. Not the way that I think a 13- or 14-year-old girl would be, but I find them fascinating. They are so rich. They are also, at the end of the day, women of color.
The last thing I do before bed is think I should take my contacts out. Then I fall asleep.
Some of the best comedies now are led by women who are very involved: 'Parks and Recreation.' 'Veep's' incredible. I love 'Girls.'
I think we can topple the patriarchy by using our voices to speak out against things that aren't right and that we don't agree with. I think for people who are not people of color or members of the LGBT community, it is being an ally and being an advocate in spaces that people of color or members of the LGBT community can't really get into.
Allison Jones, a big casting director out there, was like, 'They're casting 'The Daily Show' right now - you should submit a tape.' I remember leaving school to go shoot an audition.
I think women can tell the most profound and interesting and fascinating stories.
'Sex and the City' didn't change the show because it was an international sensation. They kept it in New York.
I loved doing 'Frisky Business.' I didn't come up with it. I think John Oliver and the writers did.
There's milk-and-cookies Grandma, and there's Colt 45 and Atlantic City Grandma. She was the latter.
I wanted to do screenwriting. That's what I went to school for, but my major was overfilled, and when I got 'The Daily Show', I was a semester away from officially starting my major, so I never started that in particular.
I think we need to not speak over black women, not assign them labels.
I thought I was going to be hired as a contributor, but 'The Daily Show' was like, 'Nah, it's an election year, we want you to come over here and work full-time.'
When I wake up in night sweats, that's what I'm thinking about: what if someone grabs me from my past and says, 'I heard you drag me to filth on your podcast.'
I think there's something to the millennial sentiment of being, like, 'I'm great.' But I think there's also something really amazing and powerful about being, like, 'Oh, hey, I'm awesome.' It's a fine line. But I think it's possible to be both, to not be the most annoying person in the world, to still be very intriguing and fun to watch.
I look for a man who respects my womanhood and doesn't make me feel like I have to be a stereotype. Like a housewife.
Oftentimes, as women and women of color, we are put as supporting characters in other people's narratives. With 'Jessica James', she is the star of her own narrative.
You can learn so much just by observing.
I had to get used to seeing Samantha Bee around. I had to get used to seeing Jon, like, getting a bagel, and to John Oliver, and all these people whom I had seen on TV. Colbert would sometimes drop by. I had to get used to being a part of this multiple-Emmy-winning machine and being this 22-year-old black girl who was really green.
As far as diversity's concerned, there's me, there's Al Madrigal, there's Aasif Mandvi. But I'm not walking around feeling black all the time. That would stress me out.
Ultimately, when I deliver something, a lot of times it will be from a black woman's perspective, but other times it will be just from a satirical, goofy perspective.
I love it when women are like, 'You guys sound like me and my best friend!'
Me and Cate Blanchett have the same job, technically.
Don't try to fix anyone, especially not a dude. They're not going to change.
The Kardashians are walking clickbait - but let's look closer. Do Kim and Kanye affect how society feels about interracial relationships and blended families?
Thankfully, I already have a mogul I can pattern myself after: Oprah. We're a lot alike. I'm black, I love to relate things people talk about to myself, and people think my best friend and I are lesbians! My strength is that I'm more relatable.
There's truth in comedy, and that resonates with people of all races.
