Richard Pryor Quotes

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

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

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.

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

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

Two things people throughout history have had in common are hatred and humour. I am proud that I have been able to use humour to lessen people's hatred.

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

All humor is rooted in pain.

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

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

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.

Now they're calling taking drugs an epidemic - that's cos white folks are doing it.

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!

You don't get to be old bein' no fool.

Rosa Parks showed us all that one little person can make a whole bunch of noise without so much as a whisper. She showed the world that the color of your skin shouldn't determine what part of the bus you sit in... as you ride through life.

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.

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.

Everyone carries around his own monsters.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

What I never understand about a hangover is, where does the breath come from? You know what I mean? I mean, is someone shitting in your mouth?

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.

If I ain't horny, I check to see if my heart's beatin'.

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

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?

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

Why get killed when you can run ... your ego will heal much faster than a broken jaw.

When you're running down the street on fire, people get out of your way!

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."

There are only two pieces of pussy you're gonna get in your entire life, that's your first and your last.

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

I went through every phone book in Africa, and I didn't find one god damned Pryor!

Who you gonna believe-me or your lying eyes?

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 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 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.

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

When that fire hit your ass, it will sober your ass up quick! I saw something, I went, Well, that's a pretty blue. You know what? That looks like... FIRE! Fire is inspirational. They should use it in the Olympics, because I ran the 100 in 4.3.

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

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

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.

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