Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
My father was an attorney.
Eddie Murphy is a great entertainer.
The '80s was a great decade for comedy.
My first sex scene - and it was with myself.
The first show I was in was 'Dracula' in 1975.
I still enjoy a lot of support from the black community.
I don't put my nose up at anything if the material is good.
'Harvey' continues to be both a charming and hilarious play.
People are real quick to jump at the easiest way to define you.
I don't know one actor that became an actor for healthy reasons.
I was pulling in $80 a week after taxes working in a frozen yogurt store.
If I get to tell good stories with good people, that's good enough for me.
I was welcomed into some nightclubs in Chicago that no white man's ever been in.
I don't think anybody at the major studios is rushing to offer me a romantic lead.
I was a lousy waiter, dealing with people and having people in your face like that.
I like movies that project a dilemma of modern men and women who are overwhelmed by the system.
I want to do things of significance, things that will inspire people to know how good life can be.
The only people in my whole life that have ever called me Edward are the police because it's on my license.
My first time in front of a camera, I said, 'Wonder Woman, I'm so glad you're here.' That's how I made a living.
I'm not the comic innovator that Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy are. I can't just come out with an incredible line.
I'm not really crazy about broad comedy. I like very possible, real situations that you might have found yourself in.
You have to tell a good story first. If it's a good story, people will be interested. It doesn't matter about the content.
In my movies, I portray this 'Everyman' persona, someone everybody can empathize with. People can identify with a guy like me.
The message I always received was God is good. You're bad. Try harder. I pretty much kept my hand up at anything that represented God.
I was spoiled and I was arrogant. I was very demanding, had an overblown image of who I was and got a reputation for being difficult. And rightfully so.
I remember once they sent me over to read for a show called 'Mork and Mindy.' I heard gales of laughter, then Robin Williams walked out. I had to follow Robin Williams.
I frowned just like Winston Churchill on his worst day, and I reminded my father of a judge who had presided over a case... I've been Judge ever since I was two weeks old.
I think I started out because I was desperate for approval and acceptance and praise. Some actors never break away from that. They're after that validation their whole life.
My first car was a '63 Chevy station wagon that I called Ramona, because that's the sound it made. 'Farm Use' was painted on the back. It was right off the set of 'Hee Haw.'
People are flooded with information every day, and normal guys everywhere try valiantly to stay up with all the technology. But they can't quite do it. I know how those guys feel.
A lot of things haven't changed - clothes and stuff have - but kids keep working after-school jobs and keep getting into terrible trouble in relationships. That's not going to stop.
I haven't always played nice guys. In 'Gremlins,' I was a conceited, pompous braggart, and I was a redneck chauvinist in the TV movie 'A Matter of Sex.' But I really prefer sympathetic roles.
Before 'Animal House' came out to open up a huge market, there just weren't parts for young guys. That genre of film was my ticket in... One of my first jobs was with Bill Murray in 'Stripes.'
The day before 'Beverly Hills Cop' opened, I was at a branch of my bank, and the teller asked me for two pieces of identification. Four days after it opened, I was being waved to on the freeway.
When I was a kid growing up, I liked the sympathetic characters played by Alan Arkin, Jack Lemmon, and James Stewart. They were my heroes. No matter what happened to them, they survived with their dignity intact.
For a lot of kids, the Boys and Girls Club is really a sanctuary, an oasis of sanity and safety for them because their home life is so tragic. Some of these kids have only one parent, and that one is addicted to drugs.
Personally, I feel that if you shoot off 200,000 rounds, and your lead character pulls out a pistol and never gets hit, there's a sense of jeopardy that's lost. It becomes a little less exciting when things don't make sense.
I'm really glad I had the chance to live in Jensen Beach and Stuart before everything exploded. I'm always going to be fond of that area. For me, it was a sleepy little fishing town, and it kind of represents what Florida was before the development explosion.
I walked on eggshells a lot. I have a bad self-esteem problem, and my father probably facilitated it. He once looked at me very seriously when I was about 15 and had whipped cream smeared all over myself. He said, 'You'd do anything for a laugh, wouldn't you?'