If you mess something up, remember who got you there. Don't be pointing fingers, even if finger-pointing is called for. Only one you got to blame is your own self.

Black audiences are hard. They always think they're better than you. So you got to come with a little extra to satisfy them.

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.'

I was in love with a lot of people, because I was a student of the game of comedy - Carol Burnett, Jack Benny, Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason, Don Rickles, Red Foxx, Moms Mabley - who gets no credit, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, George Kirby. I loved them all, and I used to just take a page out of all of them.

Jerry Weintraub, the producer, might be a pain in the ass, but he really knows how to treat his actors.

When I go onstage, I want to relieve your mind, your pressures.

I'm not afraid to fail. Sometimes when you lose, you win. Sometimes when you win, you lose.