Richard Pryor Quotes

1. There's a lot more hypocrisy than before. Racism has gone back underground.


2. There's nothing worse than being an aging young person.


3. That's insanity. We must be good all the time.



4. (on Reagan) M…r looked at me like I owed him money.

5. I don't see myself getting married again, but if I do, it will be forever.


6. Everyone carries around his own monsters.

7. I can't just say the words, do a lot of one-liners. I love each person I play; I have to be that person. I have to do him true.


8. I don't understand what goes on some times, right, cuz here we are in this theater, we gettin along just fine. We go outside and the s..it change.


9. I'm not addicted to cocaine...I just like the way it smells.

10. I had some great things and I had some bad things. The best and the worst...In other words, I had a life.


11. Comedy rules! Don't let anybody tell you otherwise, and there are no rules in stand-up comedy, which I really like. You can do anything you want and you can say anything that comes to mind, just so long as it's funny. If you ain't funny then get the f…k off the stage, it's that simple.

12. The reason people use a crucifix against vampires is that vampires are allergic to bullshit.

13. I don't want to go through life as a Wonder Wheel murderer!

14. I love show business. I wake up every morning and kiss it.


15. It's been a struggle for me because I had a chance to be white and refused.





16. I bought my parents a home before they died, and they got to see that I was going to be all right. They always thought I would go someplace.

17. I live in racist America and I'm uneducated, yet a lot of people love me and like what I do, and I can make a living from it. You can't do much better than that.


18. I'm for human lib, the liberation of all people, not just black people or female people or gay people.

19. When you ain't got no money, you gotta get an attitude.

20. I had a breakup. I decided that I wasn't going to do the sort of routines I was doing anymore. So I went to work, trying to develop the thing I do now.


21. It's so much easier for me to talk about my life in front of two thousand people than it is one-to-one. I'm a real defensive person, because if you were sensitive in my neighborhood you were something to eat.

22. You have to have lived some life. You've got to have paid some dues.

23. Even when I was a little kid, I always said I would be in the movies one day, and damned if I didn't make it.

24. In March I had a minor heart attack while I was vacationing in Australia. it scared me, but it was nothing compared to what someone had in store for me down the road.

25. It's easy to love somebody. S...t, sit with them a little bit and talk to them a while.


26. If I thought about it, I could be bitter, but I don't feel like being bitter. Being bitter makes you immobile, and there's too much that I still want to do.


27. I'm going through a humbling experience these days.


28. (on Reagan) I went to the White House, met the president... We in trouble.

29. Movies are movies, and I don't think any of them are going to hurt the moral fiber of America and all that nonsense.


30. I went to Zimbabwe. I know how white people feel in America now; relaxed! Cause when I heard the police car I knew they weren't coming after me!






31. I'm going back out on the road. I love it, but I do need the money. It's a very safe high for me.


32. You can have a film and have 200 white people working on it, and nobody finds anything wrong with that. But if you insist on having a black crew, all of a sudden there's something wrong.



33. The black groups that boycott certain films would do better to get the money together to make the films they want to see, or stay in church and leave us to our work.


34. Sure, I have friends, plenty of friends, and they all come around wantin' to borrow money. I've always been generous with my friends and family, with money, but selfish with the important stuff like love.

35. There's a thin line between to laugh with and to laugh at.


36. I urge you to ask yourself just how honorable it is to preside over the abuse and suffering of animals.



37. I never met anybody who said when they were a kid, I wanna grow up and be a critic.


38. I know that if I wasn't scared, something's wrong, because the thrill is what's scary.





39. I think about being married again, having a home and a wife. No one can ever be married too many times, and maybe if I keep trying I'll get it right one day.


40. I realized this is what God has dealt me, and I should be thankful considering all that's happened to me in my life, but MS caused the movies to stop - stop dead - and I miss it.


41. Hawaii is the best form of comfort for me. When I die, I want to be cremated, and I want half my ashes spread in the Pacific around the island, the rest on the property.

42. Marriage is really tough because you have to deal with feelings... and lawyers.


43. I believe the ability to think is blessed. If you can think about a situation, you can deal with it. The big struggle is to keep your head clear enough to think.


44. My grandmother used to discipline me, I mean, beat my a..s, and I deserved them, too.


45. Someone called all the newspapers in New York and told them I'd died. I've been told by almost everyone it was an ex-wife - I've had a few so it's hard to pinpoint which one - but who knows for sure?


46. I was a loner and never hung out with anyone. I never had any friends.

47. I was kicked out of school because of my attitude. I was not assimilating. So I went to work, taking any jobs I could get.


48. Imagine people calling you to find out if you're dead. I've led a real crazy life at times, and I've had many strange things happen to me, but that was one of the strangest.

49. I believe in the institution of marriage, and I intend to keep trying till I get it right.

50. I'm not for integration and I'm not against it.


51. Let me tell you what really happened…Every night before I go to bed, I have milk and cookies. One night I mixed some low-fat milk and some pasteurized, then I dipped my cookie in and the s..it blew up.


52. You work your butt off and somebody says you can't have your record played because it offends them. Tyrants are made of such stuff.


53. I believe in divine forces and energies.





54. I'd like to make you laugh for about ten minutes though I'm gonna be on for an hour.

55. I just don't want to die alone, that's all. That's not too much to ask for, is it It would be nice to have someone care about me, for who I am, not about my wallet.


56. What I am for is justice for everyone, just like it says in the Constitution.




57. The way I see it, the earth is going to be here after we're dead and gone. Even if it's a polluted planet, and they messed it up. Where do they go from here - to another planet so they can mess that up too?



58. A sold-out house my first night back. Do you have any idea what kinda pressure that is? I could have been at home in my warm bed, playing Nintendo.

59. You gotta be cool when you're macho man, cuz you can't be sensitive and care about someone having a good time in bed, cuz that's too scary...When you don't use sensitivity when you're having sex, or share some of your soul, nothing gonna happen, because men really get afraid. Men really get scared in bed.

60. I ain't no movie star, man. I'm a booty star.

61. I was an only child.

62. Most people that you talk to, they's intelligent. Like I said: "Most people."

63. I was brought up in a w…ehouse in Peoria. My mother and father lived there and worked there.


64. Have you ever noticed how quiet you get when you go in the woods? It's almost like you know that God's there.

65. I can't just say the words, do a lot of one-liners. I love each person I play; I have to be that person. I have to do him true.


66. I'm slower and some days are better than others, but I'm a fighter.





67. I won't talk about what it was like in prison, except to say I'm glad I'm out and that I plan never to go back and to pay my taxes every day.


68. He's just always positive. He's always smiling and he's always trying.





69. When I was on vacation in Africa, I went out in the country. Where you see some lions and shit. I'm talking about real lions, not them kind you be f...ing with in the zoo. Hey, lion, m…erfucker.


70. Booty is just a ghetto expression, and I'm just a booty star.

71. I'd like to die like my father died…My father died f…king. My father was 57 when he died. The woman was 18. My father came and went at the same time.


72. Unfortunately, the show's success comes at the expense of its biggest asset - the comedians themselves.


73. I think about dying. I've come to realize we all die alone in one way or another.


74. I became a performer because it was what I enjoyed doing.


75. What I'm saying might be profane, but it's also profound.





76. Yes, I'm religious. God has shown me things, made certain ways clear to me.

77. There was a time in my life when I thought I had everything - millions of dollars, mansions, cars, nice clothes, beautiful women, and every other materialistic thing you can imagine. Now I struggle for peace.



78. Friends take up time, and I didn't have time.

79. When I was in Africa, this voice came to me and said: "Richard, what do you see?" I said: "I see all types of people." The voice said: "But do you see any niggers?" I said: "No." It said: "Do you know why? 'Cause there aren't any."

80. I went through every phone book in Africa, and I didn't find one goddamned Pryor!


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