My sense of humor was a tool for me getting past my mother and father separating, my older brother having cerebral palsy, and the bullies in the schoolyard. I had to make them laugh to keep them off my ass. I brought that to my professional career.

People walked out on Richard Pryor and he's the funniest man alive.

As a child, I was able to know that I wanted a better life.

You get somebody to crack a smile, that's a beautiful thing.

I can't watch American Idol... it's like karaoke without the booze.

In my heart, I really don't care who you love, same sex or not; as long as you have the ability to love, that's the important thing here.

When I was a young kid, my pops introduced me to it. He took me to Harlem, 145th and Edgecombe, to watch the filming of Claudine with James Earl Jones and Diahann Carroll. That was my first taste of seeing a set and the cameras, and I was bit by the acting bug at a young age.