Every actor and actress is possessed of the absorbing passion to create something distinctive and unique.

We all respect sincerity in our friends and acquaintances, but Hollywood is willing to pay for it.

What is the thing that Hollywood demands most? Sincerity. No place in the world will pay such a high price for this admirable trait.

The entire race is usually judged by the actions of one man or woman.

That's a powerful lucky rabbit's foot. I got the part in Gone With the Wind because of it. I got my Warner contract, thanks to it.

I am loathe to get married again. I've been married enough; I just prefer to forget it.

I'm letting no man handle my bank account.

I did my best, and God did the rest.

As for those grapefruit and buttermilk diets, I'll take roast chicken and dumplings.

Every actor and actress is possessed of the absorbing passion to create something distinctive and unique.

Bob Hope, Red Skelton, and Eddie Cantor... help us keep our balance.

Faith is the black person's federal reserve system.

A woman's gifts will make room for her.

Putting a little time aside for clean fun and good humor is very necessary to relieve the tensions of our time.

It sure looks good to see an honest-to-goodness audience after looking at you all for so long from the silver screen.

I sincerely hope that I shall always be a credit to my race, and to the motion picture industry.

In playing the part of Mammy, I tried to make her a living, breathing character, the way she appeared to me in the book.

I've played everything but a harp.

I don't belong on this earth. I always feel out of place - like a visitor.

When I was little, my mother taught me how to use a fork and knife. The trouble is that Mother forget to teach me how to stop using them!

Playing the Mammy of Miss Leigh was just about the biggest thrill I've ever had.

You can best fight any existing evil from the inside.

My desire for the part of Mammy was not dominated by selfishness for Hollywood has been good to me and I am grateful.

I always have the best of everything.

My favorite actor is Wallace Beery.

I've been a very lucky actor.

I don't think I could be happy as an actor if there was a tyrant on the set.

When I was starting to get noticed as an actor in the 1970s for something other than the third cowboy on the right who ended up dying in every movie or episode, Burt Reynolds was the biggest star in the world.

Most parts that can be played by one actor can equally well be played by another, but not this.

I think, frankly, that I'm a better director than I was an actor.

I knew an actor's career goes up and down and back up again. Your standing in this business can't be your whole identity; otherwise, you're doomed.

I don't think any actor feels comfortable watching themselves in movies. You must be very narcissistic. The problem with your own opinion of yourself is that contrary to the normal spectators, when you watch a film you are in, you only watch yourself.

I don't think there has been any increase in sophistication in the audience. When people are aware of a concept that's easy to understand, and there's an actor who will attract them to the theater and it's a movie that's funny three-quarters of the time, it will be successful.

I never dreamed about being an actor, because that was out of reach. Coming from a small town that was big in farming, and also big in clothing factories, you don't dream about being a professional football player or an actor.

My goal was always to be recognized as a good actor but no one was interested in that, simply because society just wants to warm towards your appearance. This is the great blemish of society.

If you really do want to be an actor who can satisfy himself and his audience, you need to be vulnerable.

To be honest with you, when I got into this I never thought about reviews. I never thought about what people would say about me. I was just a young guy who was excited to become a comedian and an actor and I just wanted to get to do what I got to do.

It was very natural for me to want to disappear into dark theater, I am really very shy. That is something that people never seem to fully grasp because, when you are an actor, you are meant to be an exhibitionist.

I think that I've still not been successful at playing the role of the retired actor, and I'd like to work on that.

And once you cease to be a real person, you stop being a good actor.

When I decided I wanted to be an actor, I said I wanted to work with quality actors and directors.

There are roles I want that my agency might not want me to do because of the subject matter or whatever. Or there are roles that people won't bring to me because they don't think I'll do it. And that is a big strain because an actor wants to act.

Reality is, I'm an actor and an entertainer, and I really wouldn't know what to do with another profession.

I still feel like I'm trying to make it. It's hard to shed the struggling actor thing.

Only a great actor finds the difficulties of the actor's art infinite.

Follow the wisdom of the great actor, James Cagney, you hit your mark, you look the other guy in the eye, and you tell the truth.

I was always a character actor. I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood.

In other words, I wouldn't like to be an actor if I could only be real. I like to get wild, behaviorally wild, and it's crazy to think of any form where it's just one way.

An actor entering through the door, you've got nothing. But if he enters through the window, you've got a situation.