It was rough being dark. I got heat from my own people more than anyone else. I remember going to my mom and saying, 'Why am I so black?' And she said, 'Because I'm black. You just gotta always work harder than the average bear.'

When you're offstage, that's the footprint. That's the man God's gonna judge.

I learned hard lessons in life; I had to because I had so much happen: My mother died my sophomore year in high school. The next year, same day, my brother dropped dead. Two years after that, I got married because my girlfriend got pregnant. The year after my wedding, my father - who I had only recently met - died.

Fear is not one of my attributes.

As I got older, I got into all kinds of things in the streets - but for some reason, I never got caught up with the gangs growing up. Everybody dug me, man. I never had problems.

The success of my comedy has been not being afraid to touch on subject matters or issues that everyone else is politically scared of.

Why do people love Richard Pryor so much? 'Cause he had problems.