My mother told me that niceness and kindness goes a long way.

Back in the day, I would wear up to 45 pounds of gold. It would take me four hours to get dressed!

My mother is a strong, wonderful woman. I could never be anything she didn't want me to be.

Like I tell people they wind up having short term pleasure and long term pain. I'm a tell what Minister Louis Farrakhan said, "Black people ain't poor, they just don't spend wisely" and that's the truth.

Before Rocky III, I was minding my own business, there was a Tough Man contest. I won that contest two years in a row and I didn't win because I was the toughest, the roughest or the baddest. I won when I was training for the contest, I told my pastor "They're having a contest and when I win the contest I'm a give you the money so you can buy food and clothes for the less fortunate people in the community." That was what Mr. T was about, that was back in 1979. I didn't have a car then but that's what I'm about.

When I was old enough to change my name, I changed it to Mr. T so that the first word out of someone's mouth was 'Mister,' a sign of respect.

I didn't come to Hollywood. Hollywood came to me. A lot of people wish they could say the things I say. Everyone out here is so phony, it's sickening.