Richard Pryor Quotes

“A lie is profanity. A lie is the worst thing in the world. Art is the ability to tell the truth.”

“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.”

“All humor is rooted in pain.”

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

“But for the use of physical punishment by, and fear of their oppressors, animals would never be a part of a circus.”

“But thoughts don't care about truth and shit. They sit up in your mind and f*ck with you whenever.”

“Crosses only scare vampires away because they're allergic to bullsh*t.”

“Do you know how you felt when you would lean all the way back in a chair, and just before you were about to tip over, at the very last second, you'd catch yourself? That's how I feel all the time.”

“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.”

“Everyone carries around his own monsters.”

“Freebase? What's free about it?”

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

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

“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.”

“I became a performer because it was what I enjoyed doing.”

“I believe in divine forces and energies.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

“I had to stop drinkin, cuz I got tired of waking up in my car driving ninety.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“I never met anybody who said when they were a kid: I wanna grow up and be a critic.”

“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.”

“I see people as the nucleus of a great idea that hasn't come to be yet.”

“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.”