Paul Mooney Quotes - Page 2

People do many things for many reasons. Sometimes, what you do you have no control over, because it's predestined. It's gonna happen in spite of you. There's nothing you can do about it.

I love Obama because he is proof all black people don't look alike. Nobody every told me, 'Good morning, Mr. President.' We don't all look alike.

America does not like losers. Look how we treated those soldiers who came back from Vietnam. Because they lost. America likes winners.

What does America love more than one white male?

I'm as American as apple pie.

I've never seen anyone more messed up over success than Richard Pryor. For him, it's a constant battle between success in the white world and keeping it real for his black self.

I like when people are trapped in the joke, when there's no escape. I like to lead people down the wrong path and then trap them.

An audience can be like a pack of wolves.

I don't want affirmative action - too much affirmative, not enough action.

When they were making black films in the '60s and the '70s, everyone knew their place, if you get my drift. You understand? Everyone knew the rules, and everyone knew their place. Everyone knew what to say. They had the written rules in Hollywood film, and the unwritten rules.

Majority doesn't rule. One person can change the history of the world.

If you're happy with what you're doing, then you don't get bored.

My comedy is a nuclear bomb inside my mind. It's a weapon that's never been tested. It just blows up and flattens everybody.

I don't do drugs. Because my grandmother raised me. I think like an old, black, Southern woman. If I'd have done coke, I'd probably be cooking pancakes.

White people made up the n-word, they knew about racial jokes before anybody, and in their old movies and old cartoons they made fun of everybody, especially black folks. Racial jokes were not new to them.

When you know who you are, you know who you are. That's the real dangerous thing in Hollywood, because they all want to create you and mold you.

The king of comedy is dead. Richard Pryor was the king of comedy. The rest of them are the king of copycats.

A goat's a goat. Whether you sauté or barbeque it, it's still a goat.

What does it mean to be too black for Hollywood? It's self-explanatory. Hollywood has certain kinds of blacks that they like.

You know who you are. If my mother is a nun and someone comes up to me and they go, 'Your mother is a prostitute.' It is not going to bother me, because I know my mother is a nun, she's not a prostitute.

A woman can tell me about her having a baby, but I'll never know what it is to have a baby.

There's always a message in my comedy.

You white folks see UFOs in your dreams. You don't hear about Martians in Harlem.

Hollywood doesn't even have respect for itself. Hollywood lies to itself.

There's no such thing as reverse racism.