Sometimes I think we're exposed to things we shouldn't be exposed to too early. I think that sets the tone to a person's whole life.

And when I was angry, when I was younger, I was in a cocoon. Now I'm a beautiful, black butterfly.

Stand-up is the foundation to my career. It's what I started out doing.

I just want to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, so that when I'm long gone my great-great-grandchildren can walk up to it and say, "That's my ancestor." That will be my legacy.

My father was the role model I looked up to. My dad was an entertainer, too. I patterned my life after him. He wanted me to do better than he did. He never sold a record in his life, but to me he was still a rock star.

The actors are different, although I didn't set out to be different. My inspiration came from people like Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence and Will Smith. The genre is what it is. My inspiration was drawn from great movies like 48 Hours, Bad Boys and Rush Hour.

If you can survive 'Saturday Night Live,' then you're good as far as show business is concerned.