Pam Grier Quotes

Women were victims. Their husbands could beat them up when they wanted to. They couldn't work. They could be maimed and killed by their husbands.

I tell young actresses today who are looking to get into films, "First of all, you are marginalized by the color of your skin." I tell actresses, "If you're too tall, if you're too fat, you're not going to work. I don't care how talented you are." It's a business, and sex sells. Sex, action, special effects, and violence sell. Yes, you can have art films about the triumph of the human spirit and all of that, but you'll have it done with a big-budget icon with a $20 million salary.

As I get older, it's a time to enjoy life.

My passion is to tell stories that reflect humanity.

Sometimes I'm angry, sometimes I'm not angry.

I ask you, how would you like your mom, your wife, your daughter to spend $100,000 to go to Harvard or some state school, and go out into the workplace, and you know she's great, and men are getting paid $200 per week more than her? Would that piss you off? What if you lost your job and you stay home crippled while she goes out, and she thinks she's going to get a good job, but someone male with the same level of experience and the same level of education gets paid more than her? You're going to get pissed. Until you walk a mile in someone else's shoes, I don't want to hear it.

I like serious films, the moneymaking blockbusters that don't make any kind of sense and John Carpenter films.

When you are an actor, you bring a tool in your craft but you are not that person.

I'm in film school, so I really have to sock away my money for school, tuition, and so on, and I really don't have time.

I'm not a total feminist, but I believe in rights for females.

Sometimes I'm a little Republican, sometimes I'm a little Democrat.

I consider myself conscious of how women are treated, and sometimes I can be a feminist. Sometimes I'm a little Republican, sometimes I'm a little Democrat. Sometimes I'm angry, sometimes I'm not angry. I'm not a total feminist, but I believe in rights for females. I believe that if we have to pay 100 percent for our college tuition, and then we get into the workplace and we're only given 70 percent of our counterparts' salaries, then we shouldn't have to pay but 70 percent of our college tuition. Maybe that'll stop the bullshit.

We have to have films about action and violence and special effects. That's the sad part, but you know what? It's not me doing it.

I believe that if we have to pay 100 percent for our college tuition, and then we get into the workplace, and we're only given 70 percent of our counterparts' salaries, then we shouldn't have to pay but 70 percent of our college tuition. Maybe that'll stop the bullshit.

Anything involving the camera, you're passionate about. Because there's no movies without it.

I grew up in a family where we weren't allowed to talk about beauty or to put any emphasis on physical appearance.

My people were homesteading in Colorado before Emancipation.

The first movie that I saw was Godzilla and I loved it.

At the beginning, my ambition was never to break down doors. It was just to earn tuition for myself and work in an industry where women hadn't been allowed or invited. That's all I wanted to do, not thinking that I would make waves, change minds, excite people, incite people, turn on people, repulse people.

I'm an Air force Brat and I've lived all over the world and this country and there were people in my community who were gay - nurses, hairdressers, designers - people who just had a different way about themselves.

Out of necessity comes genius.

That's what he was saying, the civil rights movement - judge me for my character, not how black my skin is, not how yellow my skin is, how short I am, how tall or fat or thin; It's by my character.

My mother really wanted me to be in possibly a beauty pageant, not only for if I could win, but it helped improve my self-image because of trauma in my childhood and other issues.

There are just certain realities about our world and I just happen to be creative within it.

I'm just going to try to do the best work at whatever I'm going to be, and I don't think I'm going to be an actress.

I do a movie once every four years and they call it a comeback.

Does a black person make them an African American? No. There are Hispanics that are very, very dark skinned so the word has lost its meaning, it's not a very concise or proper word to use even today and it wasn't then.

Me and my sisters were taught that if our eyes worked and our legs worked, we were beautiful. We had so many kids in our family that if we all got in front of the mirror and were ashamed of browns and golds and yellows and whites, and we believed what society told us - that the darker people were less attractive and the lighter ones were prettier - we would have had sibling murders. My family, being half-rural and half-military, just came from a different place.

I never thought I was pretty. I couldn't even put on eyelashes or makeup.

And as I reinvent myself and I'm constantly curious about everything, I can't wait to see what's around the corner in newfound art and entertainment and exploration.

You can get hurt at any time.

When you come from an environment that's military, and they don't stress that topic of aesthetics or beauty pageants and makeup, there are a lot of things you just don't have that city girls have. Or the country girl who goes to movies and dreams of going to Hollywood as an actress.

Coming from the '50s, things were very violent.

If you're stupid and you're arrogant, you're going to get hurt.

But I just loved looking at the clothes of the '70s.

I think people will have great conversations about religions, women's sexuality, gender issues and gay issues.

I want to direct and work with the youngins and the fabulous actors of today.

I don't believe that I should just do A-movies, I just do the work as an artist.

I came from poverty and was part of those circumstances.

I don't know how I did it, but I worked 7 days a week.

Driving a cab is not really a nurturing type of relationship. You take people and they tip you, they may not tip you, you don't know their names, they don't care about you, you don't care about them.

I will not be on this planet. I may come back in another form, and you know, I'll come back as a white man.

I was kind of a bouncy kid. I used to roller-skate into the sides of cars.

I'm a big child at heart. I think it's important to stay that way and not lose the wonder of life.

You never know how people are going to respond.

I like to do all kinds of films.

It's the best honor when someone wants to use as their professional title the name of a character that you portrayed.

Let's start working towards wellness, a healing in our community, a healing in relationships, so male and female can finally sit down and understand that that young boy or young girl saw behavior exhibited by their parents that was negative and abusive and they're going to pass it on.