Baltimore was like a small town when I got there – the Colts, the Orioles, guys like Frank Robinson, we all knew and respected each other. Everyone would cross paths at one point at Lenny Moore‘s Sportsman‘s Lounge, trading stories and having some fun.

On the comedy side of what I love as a filmmaker are Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, and Eddie Murphy; those are my favorites.

I wrote a ‘Lenny Letter‘ on a whim, and it felt indulgent, but people came up to me with tears in their eyes saying, ‘Thank you.’ There’s so much shame about mental illness in our country and so many stereotypes about women being ‘crazy‘ or ‘psycho.’

I had a good start. I did a record with Beyonce. I did a record with Lenny Kravitz. I put out my second collection of music and then my second collection of clothes.

The signing of the Sex Pistols was a turning point for Virgin. It put the company on the map and, over the years, attracted bands such as Genesis, the Rolling Stones, Lenny Kravitz, and Janet Jackson. It also attracted Culture Club, who were ground-breaking.

I was about 12 when I heard my first Lenny Bruce record. He was already dead. But it changed my life and really did change the world.

Any comic like myself owes everything he has to Lenny Bruce. He was the originator. The godfather of uncensored American stand-up is clearly Lenny Bruce.

I plan on donating a bunch of guitars to different schools around the country. There could be a new Slash out there, there could be a new Lenny Kravitz.

Like Lenny Kravitz, I wanna make the world a better place; I wanna unify people.

I’ll make a song with Rick Rubin, a song with Beyonce, a song with Lenny Kravitz. I just believe in making good music. I’m not trying to section myself off into just making hard-core rap music.

I mean, I was always interested in people like Lenny Bruce, people who are breaking the old rules and making new ones.

There is a thematic continuity here within Bigelow’s work: ‘The Hurt Locker‘ serves up a military equivalent of the thrill-trips that Lenny Nero was hustling in her earlier ‘Strange Days.’

I never get tired of performing to people who want to hear me. Hell, that’s my handshake to the world. I’m doing just what I’ve wanted to do since that day I was 15 and heard Lenny Breau play the guitar.

I like taking calls while I’m walking Lenny, but it’s always awkward, trying to juggle a phone while picking up after your dog.

In my opinion, Lenny Bruce was more of an influence on Zappa‘s satirical lyric‘s than anyone that I know of.

I plan to join the ‘SNL‘ band as a maraca player and stand behind saxophonist Lenny Pickett. That way they will at least cut to me before commercial breaks. I’ll be sure to look right into camera.

I loved reading when the critics in New York would say that some of my films reminded them of Lenny Bruce.

If you listen to Howard Stern, go back and listen to Lenny Bruce, so you can hear what real talent is.

Tony Williams, Billy Cobham and Lenny White; some of those guys were big influences on me.

I got accused of misrepresenting all people of colour in Great Britain. I would get told off a lot. ‘How can you do African characters when you’re not African?’ But I gave it a go. Maybe if there had been more of us I could have just been Lenny Henry from the Black Country with Jamaican parents.

I always give the example, if you turn on the radio today, black radio, Lenny Kravitz is not black. Bob Marley wasn’t black: in the beginning, only white college stations played Bob Marley.

I was also a big Woody Allen fan. When I got into college I listened to Lenny Bruce but it’s taken me years to put him into context historically and really get what he did.

When I was younger, I listened to the greats: Winters, Mel and Carl, Nichols and May, Pryor, Carlin, Klein, Berman and lots of Lenny Bruce albums. But once I started doing fairly well, I didn’t want to hear anybody‘s jokes or premises.

When I first started out, ‘Time’ magazine did an article on what it called ‘the sick comics,’ and they were myself, Shelley Berman, Nichols & May, Jonathan Winters, Lenny Bruce, and Mort Sahl. We were considered ‘sick.’

When I went out on tour as Bing Hitler I would hook up with Lenny and we’d get drunk together. He was always very supportive. He was a big star and a lot of what he said to me had power and impact. Apart from that, I just like him.

But the only comparison that I want to Lenny Bruce is that I’m funny. I’m Freddie Prinze, Puerto Rican all the way.

My influences as a comedian and filmmaker are Albert Brooks, Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Andy Kaufman and John Cassevettes.

From its very inception, Lenny Letter set out to create a supportive, positive, inclusive space on the Internet that does not shy away from complexity and nuance.

I don’t have an act. I just talk. I’m just Lenny Bruce.

There is a great book out called ‘Everything I Needed to Learn I Learned in Kindergarten,’ and I believe that everything I ever needed to learn on guitar was in my first two years of hungry learning: Scotty Moore, Hank Marvin, Chet Atkins, Lenny Breau, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley.

I want to write the reparations joke that makes people go, ‘Yay! I’m so happy!’ It’s easy to go onstage and just make fun of all the ‘isms‘ instead, but we can’t all be Jeff Dunham. Although that pays very well… it pays way better to be Jeff Dunham than it ever paid to be George Carlin or Lenny Bruce.

When I was 16 or 17, I saw Lenny Bruce being taken to jail. They took him off stage because he talked about race.

I’m always trying to emulate guitar. Especially when I’m playing the trombone, that’s what I think about. Like, I listen to guitar players every day: Warren Haynes, Lenny Kravitz, Prince, different people. And I’m always trying to find out a way how I can get my trombone to sound like that.

My influences were Woody Allen and Lenny Bruce.

What is there about basketball that makes Larry Bird or Lenny Wilkens want to coach after their playing careers are done?

The origin of ‘Lenny Letter,’ it started because Lena went on her book tour, and she had these audiences, young women, really diverse and looking for guidance.

I did a TV show called ‘Lenny Henry Dot TV’ a couple of years ago and I hated it. These things always happen when you don’t have time to reflect. And I didn’t do anything on the telly for three years.

I don’t sing. I played guitar for a while. I’m not great, I’m not Lenny Kravitz by any means, but I do like to strum.

Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, who founded Lenny Books together, also happen to have exquisite reading tastes – from obscure small press poetry chapbook to dishy memoirs to literary novels – and so it’s a real honor that they’ve chosen to announce their imprint with my stories.

Lenny Kravitz is one of my favorite musical artists.