Sidney Poitier Quotes

A good deed here, a good deed there, a good thought here, a good comment there, all added up to my career in one way or another.

History passes the final judgment

I was a gift to my mother. She was a remarkable person. God or nature, or whatever those forces are, smiled on her, then passed me the best of her.

I'd seen my father. He was a poor man, and I watched him do astonishing things.

But perhaps more important, as someone wishing to make a comment or two about contemporary life and values, I don't have to dig through libraries or travel to exotic lands to arrive at a view of our modern situation refracted through the lens of the preindustrial world, or the uncommercialized, unfranchised, perhaps unsanitized-and therefore supposedly more "authentic"-perspective ofthe Third World. Very simply, this is because that "other" world, as alien as if separated by centuries in time, is the one from which I came

My father was a tomato farmer. There is the phrase that says he or she worked their fingers to the bone, well, that's my dad. And he was a very good man.

I wanted to explore the values that are at work, underpinning my life.

In my case, the body of work stands for itself... I think my work has been representative of me as a man.

You don't have to become something that you aren't to become better than you are.

Mine was an easy ride compared to Jackie Robinson's.

I didn't run into racism until we moved to Nassau when I was ten and a half, but it was vastly different from the kind of horrendous oppression that black people in Miami were under when I moved there at 15. I found Florida an antihuman place.

In America, it is difficult to be your own man.

I have a kind of respect - a worshipful attitude, even - for nature and the natural order and the cosmos and the seasons.

I don't very often read novels.

I lived in a country where I couldn't live where I wanted to live. I lived in a country where I couldn't go where I wanted to eat. I lived in a country where I couldn't get a job, except for those put aside for people of my colour or caste.

I did not go into the film business to be symbolized as someone else's vision of me.

I want my great-granddaughter to have a fairly good understanding of the world in which I lived for 81 years and also the world before I came into it - all the way back a hundred thousand years, to the beginning of our species.

As a man, I've been representative of the values I hold dear. And the values I hold dear are carryovers from the lives of my parents.

Generally, I tend to despise human behavior rather than human creatures.

I always wanted to be someone better the next day than I was the day before.

So it's been kind of a long road, but it was a good journey altogether.

As I entered this world, I would leave behind the nurturing of my family and my home, but in another sense I would take their protection with me. The lessons I had learned, the feelings of groundedness and belonging that have been woven into my character there, would be my companions on the journey.

There is not racial or ethnic domination of hopelessness. It's everywhere.

I wouldn't change a single thing, because one change alters every moment that follows it.

If you apologize because you are afraid, then you are a child not a man.

My father was a certain kind of man - I saw how he treated my mother and his family and how he treated strangers. And I vowed I would never make a film that would not reflect properly on my father's name.

My father was very big on marriage.

When you walk with someone, something unspoken happens. Either you match their pace or they match yours.

I was not the kind of a principal player that was so in demand that eight or 10 or 12 scripts came per month.

But I always had the ability to say no. That's how I called my own shots.

I am the me I choose to be.

So I had to be careful. I recognized the responsibility that, whether I liked it or not, I had to accept whatever the obligation was. That was to behave in a manner, to carry myself in such a professional way, as if there ever is a reflection, it's a positive one.

I come from a great family. I've seen family life and I know how wonderful, how nurturing, and how wonderful it can be.

As I've mentioned, a large part of my father's legacy is the lesson he taught his sons. He brought us together and said, 'The measure of a man is how well he provides for his children.

Acting isn't a game of "pretend." It's an exercise in being real.

I set my star so high that I would constantly be in motion toward it.

I've learned that I must find positive outlets for anger or it will destroy me. There is a certain anger: it reaches such intensity that to express it fully would require homicidal rage--self destructive, destroy the world rage--and its flame burns because the world is so unjust. I have to try to find a way to channel that anger to the positive, and the highest positive is forgiveness.

So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness.

To be compared to Jackie Robinson is an enormous compliment, but I don't think it's necessarily deserved.

I had learned something of Miami from people who had visited there, so I knew what to expect.

I was the only Black person on the set. It was unusual for me to be in a circumstance in which every move I made was tantamount to representation of 18 million people.

The impact of the black audience is expressing itself. They look to films to be more expressive of their needs, their lives. Hollywood has gotten that message - finally.

I couldn't adjust to the racism in Florida. It was so blatant... I had never been so described as Florida described me.

My autobiography was simply the story of my life.

The older we get the less afraid we are.

Racism is very painful. That's life. It never ends.

You don't have to become something you're not to be better than you were.

I cannot be understood in three minutes.