There's always a message in my comedy.

The king of comedy is dead. Richard Pryor was the king of comedy. The rest of them are the king of copycats.

I have nothing to do with racism in America; it was here when I got here.

People do many things for many reasons. Sometimes, what you do you have no control over, because it's predestined. It's gonna happen in spite of you. There's nothing you can do about it.

I'm as American as apple pie.

No wonder circus animals do what they do: They tortured them. And you know the only ones they can't control? It's the chimpanzees. You can't control them. That's why you never see a gorilla in a movie, because the gorilla may decide there'll be no filming.

I don't do drugs. Because my grandmother raised me. I think like an old, black, Southern woman. If I'd have done coke, I'd probably be cooking pancakes.