Kal Penn > Quotes

“Dare we call this "Naan fiction"? Cheers.”
― Kal Penn, American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures

“When someone chooses to provide 3,081 percent more resources to a project with a white protagonist than they do to a project with a protagonist of color… while measuring the success of both projects with the same scale… it is an example of systemic racism—the more diverse project has been set up to fail from the start.”
― Kal Penn, You Can’t Be Serious

“In promoting Sunnyside on other networks, NBC spent $250,000; in promoting Perfect Harmony that number increased by 580 percent to $1.7 million. In promoting Sunnyside on its own stations NBC ran forty-three promotional spots; in promoting Perfect Harmony, 1,368 spots—an increase of 3,081 percent.
1,368 ads for Perfect Harmony. Forty-three for Sunnyside.”
― Kal Penn, You Can’t Be Serious

“Perpetually on-the-go New Jerseyans are a highly declarative people who speak very clearly, and with our hands.”
― Kal Penn, You Can’t Be Serious

“Though things weren’t ending the way I had hoped, I was extremely grateful. I share my story not to shame anyone or place punitive pressure, but because of my genuine hope that the system in the industry I love so deeply can continue to improve. And looking around at the panoply of people who made my dream of Sunnyside happen felt powerful and remarkable. Even if just briefly, we were doing creative work the way we had hoped it could be done. Through our characters, we brought our communities to life. We created a vibrant professional creative space in which we didn’t have to explain ourselves.”
― Kal Penn, You Can’t Be Serious

“As a creative, you have to take your experiences and figure out how to evolve”
― Kal Penn, You Can’t Be Serious