What helped me get the part was that I turned it down. When I read the script, Venus was just a black guy who came in wearing a big coat and a hat and making jive talk. I'd been up for so many of those! I'd had enough of caricatures, what white writers conceive blacks to be. I told the producer I wasn't interested in doing anything like that for three or four years. He said that it was just a pilot, that Venus would be given a human dimension and would be quiet off-the-air. I wanted that input. I thought that side was as important as the comic side. For 'WKRP,' too much of either would be bad.

Just having hope ain't going to cut it. You've got to have hope, passion and skills.

Young kids are taking Viagra, ecstasy. They even want instant sex.

Black people don't even question things any more, they simply follow the lead.

The name of the game is efficiency; we have to play that game with our toys and our brains.

How did we suddenly become entranced with gangster culture? I saw it this morning on campus. When did the black community say we should all look like criminals?

One problem when you get energy and want to go with it is that with so large a cast of talented people, you have to wait three or four shows for some 'meat.'