Top 87 Quotes & Sayings by Pam Grier

I really do not care if it is a B-movie or not.

I've never considered myself to be beautiful, and I still don't.

I do a movie once every four years and they call it a comeback.

I love working with a lot of different films and a lot of different people.

I love the hip-hop nation.

I don't know how I did it, but I worked 7 days a week.

Driving a cab is not really a nurturing type of relationship. You take people and they tip you, they may not tip you, you don't know their names, they don't care about you, you don't care about them.

Today, many people are engaging in same sex relationships and saying they are not gay.

I'm an Air force Brat and I've lived all over the world and this country and there were people in my community who were gay - nurses, hairdressers, designers - people who just had a different way about themselves.

There are just certain realities about our world and I just happen to be creative within it.

This whole beauty thing is something I've never comprehended.

Well who's black and what is a black person?

I like serious films, the moneymaking blockbusters that don't make any kind of sense and John Carpenter films.

My people were homesteading in Colorado before Emancipation.

Well, thank you and that's for them, but for me, I want to look back at a body of work where when you do the research and you explore the psyche of a character, where she's been, where she is and where she's going.

Me, sexy? I'm just plain ol' beans and rice.

And as I reinvent myself and I'm constantly curious about everything, I can't wait to see what's around the corner in newfound art and entertainment and exploration.

I came from poverty and was part of those circumstances.

It's always fun to put on bell bottoms and have your butt hanging out and hip huggers.

Each time you do a film you gain a lot of experience and build a visual resume where people get to know who you are.

I don't believe that I should just do A-movies, I just do the work as an artist.

I thought I would be Sheena of the Jungle as a little girl.

I like to do all kinds of films.

It makes me forget that I'm not going to be a major star and lead female in films whether it was 20 years ago, 10 years ago, five or in the future.

I grew up in a family where we weren't allowed to talk about beauty or to put any emphasis on physical appearance.

Does a black person make them an African American? No. There are Hispanics that are very, very dark skinned so the word has lost its meaning, it's not a very concise or proper word to use even today and it wasn't then.

The first movie that I saw was Godzilla and I loved it.

You can be on top of everything, and the next minute, you're going to be on the bottom.

Women are allowed more freedoms and we're fighting for more freedoms, we're experiencing more freedoms won.

I am really blessed and very grateful for it.

But I just loved looking at the clothes of the '70s.

My family was very, very receptive to all; all races, religions.

Oh, there's going to be debate because you're dealing with the Bible and religion is supposed to be separate from state and that to me is already a conflict before it even hits the gay issue.

That's what he was saying, the civil rights movement - judge me for my character, not how black my skin is, not how yellow my skin is, how short I am, how tall or fat or thin; It's by my character.

Our culture is revered and it inspires people all around the globe.

When you come from an environment that's military, and they don't stress that topic of aesthetics or beauty pageants and makeup, there are a lot of things you just don't have that city girls have. Or the country girl who goes to movies and dreams of going to Hollywood as an actress.

I don't think I can break down any doors, but I'm thinking, "Maybe I can be a cameraman, because I love the cameras." And the cameraman would show me how to thread the film, how to repair it, the lenses. That's when you become, like, goony goo-goo about it. You breathe and eat camera, and all of a sudden, you don't want anything else in the world. You finally know, "This is my calling." When you're passionate about something, it doesn't become work. It's art and it's fun. It's arduous, it's sweaty.

Everyone else can do violence. You know, Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone, they can all do shoot-'em-ups. Arnold Schwarzenegger can kill 10 people in one minute, and they don't call it "white exploitation." They win awards and get into all the magazines. But if black people do it, suddenly it's different than if a white person does it. People respond differently because people come from different places.

Let's start working towards wellness, a healing in our community, a healing in relationships, so male and female can finally sit down and understand that that young boy or young girl saw behavior exhibited by their parents that was negative and abusive and they're going to pass it on.

My passion is to tell stories that reflect humanity.

I'm not a total feminist, but I believe in rights for females.

My grandfather was the first feminist in my life. He taught me if a woman can do something, a man will respect her.

Struggle and survival, losing and winning, doesn't matter. It's entering the race that counts. You enter, you can win, you can lose .... but it's all about entering the race.

As I get older, it's a time to enjoy life.

If you're stupid and you're arrogant, you're going to get hurt.

I consider myself conscious of how women are treated, and sometimes I can be a feminist. Sometimes I'm a little Republican, sometimes I'm a little Democrat. Sometimes I'm angry, sometimes I'm not angry. I'm not a total feminist, but I believe in rights for females. I believe that if we have to pay 100 percent for our college tuition, and then we get into the workplace and we're only given 70 percent of our counterparts' salaries, then we shouldn't have to pay but 70 percent of our college tuition. Maybe that'll stop the bullshit.

Out of necessity comes genius.

Yes, you can have art films about the triumph of the human spirit and all of that, but you'll have it done with a big-budget icon with a $20 million salary. You'll have Julia Roberts, you'll have Robert Redford, you'll have Russell Crowe doing those films, because if they're going to cost $90 million, they're going to make that movie for a public that's very large and mainstream. They're not going to make it for three or four million black people.

Me and my sisters were taught that if our eyes worked and our legs worked, we were beautiful. We had so many kids in our family that if we all got in front of the mirror and were ashamed of browns and golds and yellows and whites, and we believed what society told us - that the darker people were less attractive and the lighter ones were prettier - we would have had sibling murders. My family, being half-rural and half-military, just came from a different place.

I really hate to see abusive behavior being passed on from generation to generation to generation, when we have access to health and counseling.

I'm a big child at heart. I think it's important to stay that way and not lose the wonder of life.

I tell young actresses today who are looking to get into films, "First of all, you are marginalized by the color of your skin." I tell actresses, "If you're too tall, if you're too fat, you're not going to work. I don't care how talented you are." It's a business, and sex sells. Sex, action, special effects, and violence sell. Yes, you can have art films about the triumph of the human spirit and all of that, but you'll have it done with a big-budget icon with a $20 million salary.

I felt beauty was a magnet for abuse, and I had suffered greatly for it.

I believe that if we have to pay 100 percent for our college tuition, and then we get into the workplace, and we're only given 70 percent of our counterparts' salaries, then we shouldn't have to pay but 70 percent of our college tuition. Maybe that'll stop the bullshit.

Some day I want to play a grandmother. And a foxy one at that!

I was a child of the women's movement. Everything I had learned was from my mother and my grandmother, who both had a very pioneering spirit. They had to, because they had to change flat tires and paint the house - because, you know, the men didn't come home from the war or whatever else, so women had to do these things.

Sex, action, special effects, and violence sell.

I never went in thinking, "You're an African-American woman, so you're never going to win." I was just in career doing beauty pageants for the experience, and to show my brains and talent and help break stereotypes. It wasn't like, "Oh, I'll become a star. I'm beautiful." I never thought I was pretty. I couldn't even put on eyelashes or makeup. When you come from an environment that's military, and they don't stress that topic of aesthetics or beauty pageants and makeup, there are a lot of things you just don't have that city girls have.

I will not be on this planet. I may come back in another form, and you know, I'll come back as a white man.

Sometimes I'm angry, sometimes I'm not angry.