Kate McKinnon Quotes

When I was on ‘The Big Gay Sketch Show’ I thought, ‘Well, this is going well now, but then when it’s over I’ll just be a barista.’

I can relate to pushing yourself because you want to help and move culture toward justice.

I worked as a telemarketer for an SAT-prep company. That was the worst of it, because I had to call people in post-Katrina New Orleans and offer them this very, very expensive SAT class. And I’m not even a good salesman.

I don’t sleep enough, and it does… what is the opposite of wonders… horrors. It does horrors for my skin.

If I had my druthers, I would be a brain in a jar, with a burlap skirt around the cart I’m on – I don’t attend to my physical being much.

I like to connect with people and suss them out. There’s no better way than seeing how they react if you just bear into them.

I started watching ‘SNL’ when I was thirteen or so; those were the Molly Shannon/Ana Gasteyer/Cheri Oteri years.

I lost $6 in Atlantic City once and said, ‘Never again.’

My couch is made of cat’s hair. The cushions have been obscured, and it’s made of salt-and-pepper fur. I can’t have visitors. I can’t ask people to sit on that couch because they become implicated in the furriness of it, and they’re walking around, and it’s not fair to people.

I’ve been a big astrophysics nut since I was 12. I have always had a real soft spot for the bizarreness of quantum mechanics. But I gave up on being a scientist in high school – I’m just not that good at math.

You just have to work super hard, and if you have a passion, that’s the most beautiful thing in life, and you just have to bust out and do it, baby!

To be employed in the entertainment industry is a miracle.

For an impression, I just find that I can do a lot of the people I love without much research, because I’ve already watched hours and hours of them on video and it seeped into my brain while I wasn’t thinking about it.

I was an umpire at little league softball games. I only lasted a few games because I wasn’t one hundred percent clear on all the rules.

Even if you’re an angry, intense person, you also have to have intense joy about life and intense feelings about the world.

I do get approached occasionally, but not a ton. I’m unrecognizable because I’m coated in cat hair and sweat. And there’s a sort of yeti quality to my presence… so I don’t think that people can see the face.

I find donating stuff to be the biggest hassle.

I think that any sort of fantasy or sci fi that is grounded in something that could ostensibly be real – ‘Jurassic Park’ being my favorite example – is that much more prescient because it means that much more. Maybe one day, what if?

You can’t make the audience fall in love with a character you don’t like.

For ‘Ghostbusters,’ the thing that makes it such an amazing franchise and an amazing idea is that it is adds the element of physics and technology. It’s not just about ghosts. Who the heck came up with that? It is such a good idea, such a unique combination of stuff from different genres. Ghosts and sci fi.

I grew up with a pet iguana named Willy. We had a very contentious relationship. It turns out that iguanas are not meant to live in suburban homes.

I’m a physical comedian first – and I’m a woman before that.

It’s much easier for me to do an impression of someone real, because you and the audience begin with a baseline understanding of this person’s life. And then if you subvert that in any way, it’s a little comedy surprise.

Comedy has become, I think, a very important branch of public intellectualism. But it still ain’t Washington.

I’m a very low-key person, but for some reason, I like to act out.

It’s hard not to be the straight man when Zach Galifianakis is there. He’s such a delightfully bizarre creature. Everything he does is so surprising. He’s such a live wire. It’s just so exciting to watch.

I will not hear a word against him. I love my Bieber!

Getting recognized on the street is fine, but I never really wanted to be famous. I just wanted to have mastered the art of sketch comedy.

I admire my boss, Lorne Michaels. He never stops producing. I think, for him, comedy is a tool of compassion, a way of rallying people together and saying, ‘Guys, isn’t the world bonkers? Aren’t we all just trying our best?’ There’s a tenderness in everything he does.

If you asked me to seriously kiss someone on a screen, I would be very uncomfortable. But I will lick any part of your face.

The first impression that I liked doing was an impression of Cheri Oteri’s Barbara Walters impression on ‘SNL.’ I found that I could mimic that pretty well, and people got a kick out of that.

I found I could speak louder and was more comfortable if I was doing it in someone else’s crazy voice.

I have only had positive interactions in relation to my impressions of people, which I’m happy because I do them with love, and I hope that the people who I do them of really like them.

If I had Instagram, it would be pictures of my son, who is a cat.

I was very serene, and I still am, until I start talking in another voice, then suddenly I have a lot of volume and I’m frantic. But I didn’t want to be one of those people who’s always talking in accents in real life, so I started doing sketch comedy.

I hate the feeling of having hair on my neck.

Maddie Ziegler is the most amazing dancer I’ve ever seen, and I’m so obsessed with her. I was obsessed with her even before she did her first Sia video.

‘SNL’ can be a stressful environment, and I am panicking constantly, but I guess I keep it pretty internal.

What’s not to love about a crazy cat lady? You have to be very giving to be a crazy cat lady.

That’s the one criteria I have – I can’t do an impression of someone I don’t like.

Everyone has some kind of light inside them.

My cat does this thing where he’s so happy to see me that he repeatedly smashes his face into my face and purrs like a literal pig.

I can’t do choreographed movement. It has to come from my heart… and my pelvis.

Nothing makes me laugh more than farting.