Top 94 Quotes & Sayings by Richard Pryor
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American actor Richard Pryor.
Last updated on April 14, 2025.
Everyone carries around his own monsters.
There's a thin line between to laugh with and to laugh at.
The way I see it, the earth is going to be here after we're dead and gone. Even if it's a polluted planet, and they messed it up. Where do they go from here - to another planet so they can mess that up too?
I believe the ability to think is blessed. If you can think about a situation, you can deal with it. The big struggle is to keep your head clear enough to think.
What I am for is justice for everyone, just like it says in the Constitution.
I'd like to make you laugh for about ten minutes though I'm gonna be on for an hour.
Sure, I have friends, plenty of friends, and they all come around wantin' to borrow money. I've always been generous with my friends and family, with money, but selfish with the important stuff like love.
Someone called all the newspapers in New York and told them I'd died. I've been told by almost everyone it was an ex-wife - I've had a few so it's hard to pinpoint which one - but who knows for sure?
The black groups that boycott certain films would do better to get the money together to make the films they want to see, or stay in church and leave us to our work.
I'm not for integration and I'm not against it.
When you ain't got no money, you gotta get an attitude.
I realized this is what God has dealt me, and I should be thankful considering all that's happened to me in my life, but MS caused the movies to stop - stop dead - and I miss it.
I believe in divine forces and energies.
There was a time in my life when I thought I had everything - millions of dollars, mansions, cars, nice clothes, beautiful women, and every other materialistic thing you can imagine. Now I struggle for peace.
Imagine people calling you to find out if you're dead. I've led a real crazy life at times, and I've had many strange things happen to me, but that was one of the strangest.
Marriage is really tough because you have to deal with feelings... and lawyers.
I never met anybody who said when they were a kid, I wanna grow up and be a critic.
I'm for human lib, the liberation of all people, not just black people or female people or gay people.
I can't just say the words, do a lot of one-liners. I love each person I play; I have to be that person. I have to do him true.
I know that if I wasn't scared, something's wrong, because the thrill is what's scary.
Booty is just a ghetto expression, and I'm just a booty star.
Friends take up time, and I didn't have time.
Movies are movies, and I don't think any of them are going to hurt the moral fiber of America and all that nonsense.
I think about dying. I've come to realize we all die alone in one way or another.
Even when I was a little kid, I always said I would be in the movies one day, and damned if I didn't make it.
Yes, I'm religious. God has shown me things, made certain ways clear to me.
Hawaii is the best form of comfort for me. When I die, I want to be cremated, and I want half my ashes spread in the Pacific around the island, the rest on the property.
I went to Zimbabwe. I know how white people feel in America now; relaxed! Cause when I heard the police car I knew they weren't coming after me!
I became a performer because it was what I enjoyed doing.
I won't talk about what it was like in prison, except to say I'm glad I'm out and that I plan never to go back and to pay my taxes every day.
I don't see myself getting married again, but if I do, it will be forever.
I think about being married again, having a home and a wife. No one can ever be married too many times, and maybe if I keep trying I'll get it right one day.
I believe in the institution of marriage, and I intend to keep trying till I get it right.
I just don't want to die alone, that's all. That's not too much to ask for, is it It would be nice to have someone care about me, for who I am, not about my wallet.
I urge you to ask yourself just how honorable it is to preside over the abuse and suffering of animals.
I was kicked out of school because of my attitude. I was not assimilating. So I went to work, taking any jobs I could get.
It's been a struggle for me because I had a chance to be white and refused.
You work your butt off and somebody says you can't have your record played because it offends them. Tyrants are made of such stuff.
A sold-out house my first night back. Do you have any idea what kinda pressure that is? I could have been at home in my warm bed, playing Nintendo.
I ain't no movie star, man. I'm a booty star.
I was a loner and never hung out with anyone. I never had any friends.
If I thought about it, I could be bitter, but I don't feel like being bitter. Being bitter makes you immobile, and there's too much that I still want to do.
There's a lot more hypocrisy than before. Racism has gone back underground.
All humor is rooted in pain.
You don't get to be old bein' no fool.
What I'm saying might be profane, but it's also profound.
Now they're calling taking drugs an epidemic - that's cos white folks are doing it.
A lie is profanity. A lie is the worst thing in the world. Art is the ability to tell the truth.
I'm not addicted to cocaine. I just like the way it smells.
Two things people throughout history have had in common are hatred and humour. I am proud that I have been able to use humour to lessen people's hatred.
Who you gonna believe-me or your lying eyes?
I had some great things and I had some bad things. The best and the worst . . . In other words, I had a life.
Rosa Parks showed us all that one little person can make a whole bunch of noise without so much as a whisper. She showed the world that the color of your skin shouldn't determine what part of the bus you sit in... as you ride through life.
There's nothing worse than being an aging young person.
I had to stop drinkin, cuz I got tired of waking up in my car driving ninety.
I see people as the nucleus of a great idea that hasn't come to be yet.
When you're running down the street on fire, people get out of your way!
Have you ever noticed how quiet you get when you go in the woods? It's almost like you know that God's there.
The reason people use a crucifix against vampires is because vampires are allergic to bullshit.
It's so much easier for me to talk about my life in front of two thousand people than it is one-to-one. I'm a real defensive person, because if you were sensitive in my neighborhood you were something to eat.
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