Michael Appleton for The New York Times
Michael Appleton for The New York Times

Once again, our unlikely wiseman Louis C.K. nails it in a recent interview in the New York Times about his thriving success and upcoming HBO special:

Q-Does it matter that what you’ve achieved, with your online special and your tour can’t be replicated by other performers who don’t have the visibility or fan base that you do?

Why do you think those people don’t have the same resources that I have, the same visibility or relationship? What’s different between me and them?

Q-You have the platform. You have the level of recognition.

So why do I have the platform and the recognition?

Q-At this point you’ve put in the time.

There you go. There’s no way around that. There’s people that say: “It’s not fair. You have all that stuff.” I wasn’t born with it. It was a horrible process to get to this. It took me my whole life. If you’re new at this — and by “new at it,” I mean 15 years in, or even 20 — you’re just starting to get traction. Young musicians believe they should be able to throw a band together and be famous, and anything that’s in their way is unfair and evil. What are you, in your 20s, you picked up a guitar? Give it a minute.

HBO/Kevin Mazur
HBO/Kevin Mazur

 …Somebody said, you can be a little weird and it’s going to work out.

Related posts: the collected wisdom of louis c.k.
louis c.k. car dances ‘who are you?’ + rants on boredom
‘everything is so amazing, but nobody is happy’
louis c.k on being broke (with su tung-p’o)
how ‘not giving a sh*t can really help you a lot
7 principles of comedy/design/creating anything
daily tonic: johnny cash, the carter family + louis c.k.

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One thought on “louis c.k. on ‘putting the time in’

  1. Thanks so much for sharing this. The success that comes from steady, unending hard work is always worth talking about.

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