Art and life are subjective. Not everybody's gonna dig what I dig, but I reserve the right to dig it.
We're here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.
I don't have pet peeves like some people. I have whole kennels of irritation.
The Africans know I'm not an African. I'm an American.
Actors have no color. That's the art form.
I'm as American as Chevrolet.
I don't have to be bam, bam, bam, funny when I'm working. I can tell stories, and there's some funny in them.
I have the strangest time to get cast in anything. 'Ghost' was the same thing. Six months I had to wait for them to decide they had seen everybody possible. Why not? What limits me? I'm black? Oh, am I black?
Normal is nothing more than a cycle on a washing machine.
All I really want to do is just keep acting, and some of it will stink, and some of it will be really good, and maybe when I'm 85 and presenting an Oscar like Bette Davis did, I can look back and say, 'It was okay, I did all right.'
I used my imagination to make the grass whatever color I wanted it to be.
That's the thing about Mother Nature, she really doesn't care what economic bracket you're in.
I am the American Dream. I am the epitome of what the American Dream basically said. It said you could come from anywhere and be anything you want in this country. That's exactly what I've done.
We're born with success. It is only others who point out our failures, and what they attribute to us as failure.
Sitting at the table during Color Purple and looking up and suddenly realizing I was acting in front of Steven Spielberg, was pretty cool. It was pretty good.
You've got to vote for someone. It's a shame, but it's got to be done.
When you are kind to someone in trouble, you hope they'll remember and be kind to someone else. And it'll become like a wildfire.
Normal is just a cycle on the washing machine.
Everything for me is visual. That's just how my head works.
It bums me out tremendously what the church has become, and if it's got me bummed, imagine what Jesus Christ must be feeling.
When I was doing ensemble theater and comedy work, I felt I had some talents. But when I started doing my shows in Berkeley and found that I could be funny on my own, I was shocked.
Normal is in the eye of the beholder.
I don't really view communism as a bad thing.
When I started, I knew I didn't fit any visual that anyone was going to lie down and take their clothes off about. Work doesn't come to me; I go out and look for it.
And I don't believe that I have to stay on one side of the fence or the other. I don't believe that there is any good career move or bad career move. I believe there are only the things that make me happy.
Born ham, that's basically me.
For some reason, all artists have self-esteem issues.
It's being willing to walk away that gives you strength and power - if you're willing to accept the consequences of doing what you want to do.
Things happen to you out of luck, and if you get to stick around it's because you're talented.
You know, be an actor because you love to act. Don't be an actor because you think you're going to get famous, because that's luck.
