Actors from the United States

"Thanks to our brave allies: you gallant Russian bear, you British everywhere."

"I was on the way to my hotel, and I passed a hotel going in the opposite direction."

"I know I'm in England because this morning, my stomach got up two hours before I did and had a cup of tea! I've had so much tea, I slosh when I walk! You have to drink tea - I've tasted the coffee!"

"You mean like Democrats?"

"Bob Hope will go to the opening of a phone booth in a gas station in Anaheim, providing they have a camera there and three people. He'll go to the opening of a market to receive an award. He'd get an award from Thom McCan for wearing their shoes. It's pathetic. It's a bottomless pit. A barrel that has no floor. He must be a man who has an ever-crumbling estimation of himself. He's constantly filling himself up. He's like a junkie – an applause junkie. What happens to those people when they can't get up and do their shtick, God only knows. Bob Hope, Christ, instead of growing old gracefully or doing something with his money, be helpful, all he does is he has an anniversary with the President looking on. It's sad. He gets on an airplane every two minutes always going someplace. It didn't bother him at all to work the Vietnam War. Oh, he took that in his stride. He did his World War II and Korean War act. "Our boys" and all that. He’s a pathetic guy."

"For years, as I've said, Bob has worked hard for our family's sake to cut our traveling to a minimum. But there are some 300,000 miles he and I shared that we wouldn't take back for anything. I mean the world-famous Bob Hope Holiday Tours to the armed forces stationed in remote outposts overseas, made on behalf of the U.S.O. "Go with us one time, Anita, and it will get into your blood," Bob Hope suggested in 1960, the first year Bob and I were married. "You'll never play to a greater audience.""

"No doubt the funniest exploit I was involved in was dropping leaflets on the Bob Hope Christmas show at Cu Chi in 1969. Our company was assigned to provide perimeter security and air cover for the show, so none of our guys would get to see it. The night before, some enlisted men came to me with boxes of small white leaflets upon which they had written messages welcoming Bob Hope to Cu Chi. Three platoons had stayed up all night making these things, and they begged me to drop them on the show, since they knew I'd be up there. I told them it was closed airspace and you can't do that without getting into big trouble, but in a weak moment I let them talk me into it. Sure enough, in the middle of the show, I took a sharp turn, ignored the controller in my earphones, who wanted to know what I thought I was doing, and we dropped the leaflets. If you watch the videotape of that show, you can see Hope looking up as the leaflets came down. The next day, I was called in front of the CO, but he let me off when I explained why I had done it. In 1975, I was finishing my college degree at Saint Martin's in Olympia, Washington. Nobody could figure out who to get for a graduation speaker, so I suggested Bob Hope. Everyone said, "Great, you go get him." It took some time, working through his assistants, but I finally got him on the phone and explained that I was the guy who dropped the snow on his show at Cu Chi. "Why'd you do that?" he immediately asked. When I explained how I couldn't turn the troops down, he said, "Okay, I'll speak at your graduation." And he did. I was his escort the whole day, and he continued to pepper me with questions."

"In his prime, the young comic walked onto a stage with the confidence of a man who owned it, and by the time he walked off, he did."

"You can't undo the past but you can certainly not repeat it."

"I'm staggered by the question of what it's like to be a multimillionaire. I always have to remind myself that I am."

"This is the war on terrorism; it's worth fighting for."

"I wanted to sign up and fight with you guys, but they told me I was too old."

"If you catch him, just give me four seconds with Saddam Hussein."

"This is the same fight the US fought 60 years ago"

"The terrorists today are much the same as those we fought in WW II."

"I'm sick of answering this fucking question. I'm a Republican only as far as I want a smaller government, I want less government intrusion. I want them to stop shitting on my money and your money and tax dollars that we give 50 percent of... every year. I want them to be fiscally responsible and I want these goddamn lobbyists out of Washington. Do that and I'll say I'm a Republican... I hate the government, OK? I'm apolitical. Write that down. I'm not a Republican."

"If you take one out or change one law, then why wouldn’t they take all your rights away from you?"

"Paradigms, especially old ones, die harder than Bruce Willis."

"I'm not sure sophisticated comedy has a place on television any more … I'd like to think it still does … But I'm not sure the networks are interested, I'm not sure anybody else is interested in sophisticated comedy any more."

"I accept that you live with remorse every day of your life but I live with tragedy every day of my life. She was a terrific kid. She was a wonderful person and I miss her all the time. I accept your apology. I forgive you. However, I cannot give your release my endorsement. To give that a blessing would be a betrayal of my sister's life."

"Big hands, big feet, big disappointment."

"Why I oughta..."

"Hurry up!..."

"Get busy!..."

"You imbecile!"

"You knucklehead!"

"You lamebrain(s)! [Whether he is talking to one or two Stooges]"

"We're gettin' no place fast."

"Oh, a wise guy, eh?"

"Get outta here!"

"Spread out!"

"I'll murder ya!"

"Why you..."

"You nitwit!"

"Oh, you're an intelligent imbecile!"

"What's the big idea here?!"

"What's the matter with you?"

"What's the matter with him?"

"Pick out two."

"Explain it to 'em. [Before the other Stooge can say something] That's enough!"

"Get goin'!"

"Hey, fellas!"

"You see that? [puts his fist out for Larry, Curly or Shemp to slap his fist down so it can wind in a circle and bonk them on the head]"

"Don't you mean a chrysanthemumumumum?"

"Buh humbug"

"No poor allowed!"

"How do you expect me to work here?"

"Take your time but hurry up!"

"[When one of the other Stooges is asleep] Hey, you! Wake up and go to sleep."

"Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk!"

"Soitenly! [certainly]"

"Nyaaaaaahhhhhhh! [Freaked out]"

"La-la-la, la-la-la... [Humming]"

"HRRRRRRMPH! [Frustration]"

"Rrrowf! Rrrowf! [when angry or defiant]"

"I'm a victim of soicumstance [circumstance]"

"Say a few syllables! [to Moe when trying to wake him]. They're the wrong syllables!"

"Woo-woo-woo-woo! [When frightened; he sometimes runs around or away when saying this]"

"Poifect! [perfect]"

"Hey, Moe! Hey, Larry!"

"Oh...oh...oh, look!"

"I'll moidalize him!"

"Hotchachachaaa!"

"Moe, Larry, the cheese!"

"Hey, Judgiewudgie."

"Hey, toots!"

"Oh, stubborn, eh?"

"Indubitably."

"Oh, a backbiter, eh?!"

"I'm sorry, Moe, it was an accident!"

"What's the idea?"

"I didn't wanna say yes, but I couldn't say no."

"Leave him alone!"

"Hey, where's your dignity?"

"Ooo wise guy eh?"

"What a brain..."

"Hey cut the clownin'!"

"This is a nice place. It reminds me of the reform school."

"I'll take it when I'm ready! [Moe: [threateningly] Are you ready?] Yeah, I'm ready."

"[to the audience while kissing Tilda] This I like. And I get paid for it too."

"Eeeb-eeeb-eeeb-eeeb!"

"Waah, w-ohh! [A wolf-whistle towards women that sounded like a steam whistle]"

"Mee-mee-mee-mee! [frightened or surprised: uttered very fast, difficult to transcribe exactly; some other attempts]"

"Hello [Moe, low tone], Hellooo [Larry, a major third higher, with Moe still holding his 'o'], Hellooooo! [Curly, a fifth higher than Moe, forming a major chord with Moe and Larry] [The Stooges would also use this same tune for "Come in" or "Contact"]"

"Nyahhh-ah-ah! [Stooges frightened]"

"For Duty and Humanity!"

"Moe: One for all! Larry: All for one! Curly: I'm for myself."

"Moe: [to Curly] There's nothing to be scared about. [sees what Curly sees] Both: Nyahhh-ah-ah!"

"Not so haaaaaard!"

"That huuuuurts!"

"Oh, cut it ouuuuuut!"

"Not so loooouuuud!"

"You crazy you!"

"That's good for you! That's good for you! [gets hit by something] That's bad for me!"

"Come on and fight like a man!"

"Okay, buddy boy."

"Buddy, boy"

"[to Moe] One of these days, you're gonna poke my eyes out."

"[to Moe] I'm not! I'm stuck in the cymbal!"

"You know how to hurt a guy, Moe!"

"Hold hands, you love birds!"

"I'm gonna get you! Even if it takes me another 60 years!"

"Your drink, madam. (Pie hits him in the face) Pardon me, madam."

"I'm gonna change my socks. What an experience! (Moe, Larry, Curly or Shemp in several shorts)"

"Moe, Larry, the cheese! Moe, Larry, the cheese! (Curly in the 1935 short, Horses Collars)"

"A burnt stake is better than a cold chop. (Curly, on why he would rather be burned at the stake instead of decapitated)"

"Anacanapon! (Moe, demanding a surgical instrument)"

"Seenophran! (Moe, demanding another surgical instrument)"

"Cotton!! (Stooges to each other whenever performing surgery)"

"Remind me to kill/murder you later! (Moe, to others)"

"Spread Out! (Moe, to others)"

"Hey Lorna, how ya do'in? (Shemp introduction to Lorna Doone)"

"Niagara Falls! Slowly I turn, step by step, inch by inch. I walked up to him, I smashed him like this, I hit him, I bopped him, I tore him to pieces, and then I knocked him down! (Moe or Larry)"

"Hey! Wake up and go to sleep! (Moe)"

"Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard.(over the public address system in a hospital)."

"I'm tryin' to think, but nothin' happens! (Curly)"

"Mammy! (Larry gets on his knees to Moe)"

"Pappy! (Moe gets on his knees to Larry)"

"Get out (ta here)! (Moe to others)"

"Tell me your name so I can tell your mother. (Moe)"

"My mother knows my name. (Curly)"

"(After Moe tells the others to do something)"

"Oh, a chisler, eh? (Moe to Larry, Curly, or Shemp)"

"Curly shaving ice: Were you wearing a pink bow tie? No, well here's your lip."

"Also Curly shaving ice: Are you married or happy?"

"Boy, that's funny! (Curly Joe)"

"My father died dancing; on the end of a rope. (Curly)"

"I'll take some burnt toast 'n' a rotten egg. (any of the Stooges)"

"Moe: Put yer hand on yer chin (After Moe gets Larry or Curly to put his right fist up to his chin), yer knee up here (and puts his right knee up to his right elbow)."

"Ngah-ngah-ngah! (Curly frightened)"

"Why you...! (Moe or Curly, to others)"

"Come 'ere! (Moe, to others)"

"Hey, porcupine! (Moe, to Larry)"

"(After Moe pokes them in the eyes)"

"(Usually when Moe wants to open a bottle of beer or something like it)"

"A variant of the previous catchphrase is when Moe just opens a bottle of beer without giving orders. The Stooge will be in pain when Moe says:"

"If another Stooge is knocked unconscious Moe sometimes props up the Stooge's head and says, Tell me your name so I can tell your mother (that you're hurt). The other Stooge then replies, My mother knows my name! at which point Moe slaps him on the head."

"Vitamins A, B, C, D, E, F, gee I like food! (Curly)"

"The Stooges are crossing the Sahara and come to a sign post with markers that point in the direction of several far off cities, including Cairo:"

"Let's sympathize our watches! (Moe)"

"(as Moe tries to explain Pig Latin)"

"Curly: Aye-aye!"

"Moe: [to Larry] Remind me to murder you later."

"Moe: [to Curly] I'll annihilate ya. I'll murder ya."

"Moe: [after Curly kisses him] I'm poisoned."

"Curly: I don't wanna be dead. There's no future in it!"

"Wouldn't it be funny if that girl got raped by like, five guys right now? Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just raped her..."

"Even when I was a kid, my imaginary friend would play with the kid across the street. I'd be like, "Hey, so I guess I'll see you later," and he's like, "Whatever, queer.""

"I'm a lousy piece of ass, and I should know every woman I have been with has told me, so I've been there almost every time. I mean, the closest thing I got to a "birds and bees" talk was with my dad. He was like, "Son, sex is a lot like this egg." "Dad, I think those are drugs." "Whatever, queer." "Why does everyone keep saying that?" "Listen up, son. Listen good. You take a woman and crack her over the head and lie her flat. Make sure she sizzles and then flip her over. Don't stand too close or you'll get yellow stuff all over your bacon." What? I see some of you holding your stomach and feeling, "No, you shouldn't." That's a breakfast joke. That's the most important joke of the day. If you don't laugh at that, you're gonna be sleepy around 11:30. And you'll be like, "Why am I so tired?""

"The floor is lava! That's the lava game, when you pretend that the floor is lava and you climb up on all the furniture. I see some of you don't get that. I don't care, that's okay. You might have called it something else, but it meant the same thing: you were poor. I'd tell my mom, "I want a Nintendo," and she'd reply, "The floor is lava!" "What's wrong with our house? Why can't we afford better carpeting? It's called two jobs, bitch!" That's how I used to talk. I was very street."

"You ever hear girls say that? "I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual." I like to reply with, "I'm not honest, but you're interesting!""

"I don't think I could stab somebody, 'cause I'm really bad at a Capri Sun."

"Sometimes, when I'm feeling down because nothing seems to be going right, I like to take a home pregnancy test. Then I can say, "Hey, at least I'm not pregnant.""

"I hope God speaks English. If I get up to heaven and have to point at a menu, I'm gonna be pissed."

"I'm actually all for gay marriage. Just the thought of having another man around the house..."

"Butt sex is a lot like spinach. If you're forced to have it as a child, you won't enjoy it as an adult."

"You are a sick freak who should be beaten."

"You'll have to excuse me for my bad posture. My mom says it's 'cause I have a huge cock. Yeah, she talks like that. She's a sailor. We don't judge her. She lives by one rule, and it's the rule of the sea."

"I'm all for women who get plastic surgery, because plastic surgery allows you to make your outer appearance resemble your inner appearance — fake... We have shows like Extreme Make-Over. "I don't want to develop a personality, just cut my face! Stretch it and staple it. Now I'm happy, or at least I look like it.""

"Thank you... I deserve that. I'm really good. I'm one of the best. Actually, I'm the best, currently ranked number one in the world. So buckle up. You guys are in for a treat. Oh, 19,000 people, This is awesome. Thank you. Seriously, don't look around. It's 19,000. People watching on TV, they never know. They're so stupid. That's why they watch TV."

"Before I get started tonight, sorry in advance if I offend anyone. It's not my job to know what your personal line of decency is. I cross my own from time to time. It's how I know I still have one."

"God doesn't hate gays. He's just upset that they found a loophole in the system."

"Leopards can carry twice their own weight up a tree... I don't have a joke for that yet. But when you walk out of here tonight, you can say, "Well, at least I learned something. That guy's like a fucking Snapple!""

"[On looters stealing VCR's] Why are you stealing a VCR? They don't even make VHS tapes anymore! I'd steal a TiVo...but I don't, because I'm rich, and I've had one for three years. I would say four years, but that won't make the joke any funnier. You tell people, "I've had a TiVo for four years," and they're all like, "Who's the dick?""

"You know who LOVES to get fisted? Sock puppets. That joke is adorable!"

"I once had on a Lance Armstrong bracelet and a "What Would Jesus Do?" bracelet, and I rubbed a blind kid's eyes and he could see. But he wasn't used to the light, it was bright, walked into traffic was killed instantly. Okay, those of you that are laughing, I'm going to call you half-full, because you're remembering the most important part of the joke...the bracelets are working!"

"I put a "What Would Jesus Do?" bracelet on my Jewish friend's wrist and it burned his skin. He threw it on the ground, it turned into a serpent, we both started laughing. We left it there. We hate snakes. We think they're slimy even though we know they're not."

"Thank you...San Francisco. All right, you're ruining the show. Thank you...for clapping for what my parents are ashamed of."

"Oh, San Francisco! My third favorite place to do comedy in. That's not bad, right? Top ten. More butt-fucking per square foot than any other place in the world, that's you guys. [Audience cheers] Put that on your postcards. "San Fransisco: More butt-fucking per square foot. Miss you.""

"I'm all for illegal immigration in this country, except for the fact that they don't have to serve on jury duty. That's horseshit. It should be the other way around. They should serve exclusively on jury duty. Yeah, then, then, it would truly be a jury of one's own peers. [Some of the audience groans] It's not a stereotype if it's always true. Yeah, then it becomes law. That joke was called, "Latinos are criminals.""

"I can say that. I have a television show."

"Am I the only one who thinks that David Beckham should film a sex scene with Brad Pitt? I don't know who's in charge of casting in Hollywood, but get it done before one of them is past their prime. Can you imagine those two making love? If there is not a man in here who's junk doesn't even wiggle at the thought of it, and this has nothing to do with your homophobic beliefs. At that level, it's art, you monkey! You should feel privileged that you get to breathe the same air as those Greek gods!"

"A golden shower and Kite Runner reference in the same joke? Almost impossible! Almost impossible! I pull it off, because I care."

"Have you ever taken a post-shower shit? Augh! Might as well go back to bed, start your whole day over."

"You should never eat when you're on the toilet. "But I'm lactose-intolerant, and I've always wanted to enjoy a bowl of Puffins with whole milk!" That's more of an almond milk cereal, but live your dream."

"We'll put an asterisk next to Barry Bonds' name, sure. As soon as we put one next to Babe Ruth's name. Getting to break records before black people were allowed to play? Excuse me, where is that asterisk? Why don't people talk about that?"

"Don't get lost on a hike there. You'll end up on YouTube without a head, and there's no web redemption for that."

"Don't you love it when people in school are like, "I'm a bad test taker?" You mean, you're stupid. Oh, you struggle with that part where we find out what you know? Oh. No, no, I can totally relate. See, because I'm a brilliant painter, minus my God-awful brushstrokes. Oh, how the masterpiece is crystal up here [points to head] but once paint hits canvas, I develop Parkinson's. I apologize if there's a Parkinson's painter in the audience. I assume your best work is in the A.M. Probably gets a bit abstract by noon."

"You ever hear this expression? The worst day of fishing is better than the best day at work. Uh, I'll call BS. I've watched the Deadliest Catch on Discovery. I've never once been at work, capsized in a 40-degree water, watched all my co-workers die, and be like, "Hey, at least we're fucking fishin'.""

"The national anthem blows. Are you kidding me? Do any of you have it on your iPod?"

"Babies aren't dishwasher-safe."

"I came up with my own expression. I like to "make it hail". Yeah. That's when you throw change on sluts. [Mimes throwing change] "Ow! Were those nickels?" Yeah, it's a down economy, I'm a baller on a budget, bitch!"

"The first thing Michael Phelps should have done when that photo came out was call Kobe Bryant's publicist. 'Cause Kobe was accused of rape, and all he had to do was settle in court for millions of dollars, change his jersey number and win a championship and that soulless town in LA couldn't be prouder. I just hope that when parents let their kids run around in #24 jerseys, they have the decency to say, "Well, come on, number 8 was the rapist. Number 24 has a great work ethic and an unblockable turnaround.""

"Have you heard about the kid who lost his head at Six Flags? The first time I read it, I thought, "Oh my God...How can I make this funny for everybody?" ...Here goes. What happened was, he was in a church youth group and he lost his hat during the roller coaster. Afterwards, he was like, "I'm going to go get my hat." And there was a big fence with signs that said, "Hey, cut your losses." And he was like, "What? Have you SEEN me in that hat? Not today, fence!" So he climbed that fence, and then there was another fence with a sign that probably said, "Hey, come on, knock it off." He was like, "You can't tell me how to live, signs!" And he climbed over that fence and there, the story ends. Did he get the hat? I'd like to think he did. That small silver lining, "Hey, I got my hat!" Then, whack! Right then. And I know he was on a church youth group and they don't believe in evolution, but that kid was going to get picked off sooner or later."

"Being an ugly woman is like being a man. You're gonna have to work. Yep."

"There's no sense that you're there forever. No parent is there forever."

"The painter leaves his mark. And I just put in two statues in Rhode Island that I'm working on. And I think that's going to make me last longer than me. I mean, who remembers "Zorba?" Nobody remembers "Zorba." Nobody remembers "Requiem for a Heavyweight.""

"The man with the real sense of humor is the man who can put himself in the spectator's place and laugh at his own misfortunes."

"Bert Williams has done more for the race than I have. He has smiled his way into people's hearts. I have been obliged to fight my way."

"I've never seen American Idol but I am grateful to them. That show is one of Fox's biggest moneymakers, and some of that money goes to pay for shows like Prison Break. Simon Cowell's been signing my paychecks and for that I say thanks."

"A great book provides escapism for me. The artistry and the creativity in a story are better than any drugs."

"Confidence is at the root of so many attractive qualities - a sense of humor, a sense of style, a willingness to be who you are no matter what anyone else might think or say."

"Thank you for your kind invitation. As someone who has enjoyed visiting Russia in the past and can also claim a degree of Russian ancestry, it would make me happy to say yes. However, as a gay man, I must decline. I am deeply troubled by the current attitude toward and treatment of gay men and women by the Russian government. The situation is in no way acceptable, and I cannot in good conscience participate in a celebratory occasion hosted by a country where people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly. Perhaps, when and if circumstances improve, I'll be free to make a different choice."

"Animal rights is a part of my everyday life. When you live by example, you create a certain level of awareness. Friends of mine, people I have never discussed vegetarianism with, are adopting vegetarian habits because they see it."

"I think, whether we’re talking about gender inequality or racism or queer rights or indigenous rights or animal rights, we’re talking about the fight against injustice. We’re talking about the fight against the belief that one nation, one people, one race, one gender, one species, has the right to dominate, use and control another with impunity. I think we’ve become very disconnected from the natural world. Many of us are guilty of an egocentric world view, and we believe that we’re the centre of the universe. We go into the natural world and we plunder it for its resources. We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakeable. Then we take her milk that’s intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal. We fear the idea of personal change, because we think we need to sacrifice something; to give something up. But human beings at our best are so creative and inventive, and we can create, develop and implement systems of change that are beneficial to all sentient beings and the environment."

"There will never be a scenario in which the infliction of fear and pain on a vulnerable individual creates a benefit to humankind."

"He carried with him the aura of a prophet, a magician, a witch doctor, a psychoanalyst, and a feared father of a Jewish home.... [H]e was the force that held the thirty-odd members of the theatre together, and made them permanent."

"The Group was the best thing professionally that ever happened to me. I met two wonderful men. Lee Strasberg and Harold Clurman, both of whom were around thirty years old. They were magnetic, fearless leaders. During the summer I was an apprentice, they were entertaining in a Jewish summer camp... At the end of the summer they said to me: "You may have talent for something, but it's certainly not acting."

"I was thirty-three when I made A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and many leading ladies around town were considerably older. It was the first movie of Elia Kazan and for Aunt Cissie he'd wanted , who took one look at this little squirt and passed. I mean, nobody knew who he was at that stage. So he asked me and I ran with this sensational part—although he never used me again. [...] The movie made Kazan a hot commodity, but it made me a supporting character actress before my time."

"He was from the theatah, meaning he knew nothing about lighting, lenses, close-ups. All that was done for him by our ace cinematographer, , who actually asked Zanuck for a directing credit. He was turned down."

"I went to him and told him I had no such experiences in life and didn't know where to get the emotions I'd need. He was very patient with me and let me ramble on about my misgivings and anxieties. What he did, in a sense, was lock up all this intensity inside me so it wouldn't be dissipated. He was marvelous."

"Keynesian economics is really just models and numbers and how things would work in a laboratory, not how things work in the real world. The beauty of Austrian economics is [that] it studies how things work in the real world. Economics is not a predictive science, okay? You can't say, "If we do this, this is what's gonna happen." It is a descriptive science; in other words, it describes what's going on. Austrian economics says the economy runs itself, and all that we're trying to do is understand how the economy really works."

"I think, as a society, though, I think more and more people are starting to question this idea that the government can do anything, [that] it has some sort of magical power to solve all of the problems; in fact, I think more and more people are coming to the conclusion that government is the problem."

"Then I realised that it really is a philosophy that we're talking about, you know—the nonaggression axiom, that the government should be bound by the same moral laws that the rest of us are. Once you realise that, you're like, "Oh!" Your entire world opens up, and then your entire paradigm changes."

"There is no way to sort-of compartmentalise human liberty into "okay, I have social liberty and I have economic freedom." No, they're the same thing. You have— If you don't have economic freedom, you don't have personal liberty, and vice versa, if you don't have personal liberty, you don't have economic freedom, either."

"Once you come across Rothbard, it's all over with. The arguments he makes are so logical and they're so faultless that you really can't disagree with him."

"I think nullification would be a very good thing."

"He has made more people realise that they're libertarians perhaps than anyone in history with the Ron Paul Revolution and all of the things that it launched."

"What is it—medieval serfs paid about twenty-five percent of their crops to the estate lord, to the manor lord, and Americans are paying fifty percent in taxes by the time you figure out income tax and then all the various state and local taxes, and, to think we're not, y'know, overtaxed is insane."

"The whole idea, the whole premise of taxation needs to be examined. It's based on theft."

"Any tax rate is actually overtaxation."

"The great thing about libertarianism is [that] it really is the American Dream—it is the ability of everybody to live their life, to build their life, according to what they want so long as you don't hurt anybody else."

"There have been many [libertarian writers who have inspired me]: Milton Friedman, Murray Rothbard—just-just a number of people who have influenced me—Mary Ruwart, Harry Browne who ran for president as a Libertarian a couple times—so there've been a number of people."

"I think libertarianism does appeal to most people because that's how we lead our lives until the state gets involved. We lead our lives in voluntary interactions with other folks, and we follow what libertarians call the nonaggression axiom which means you're not supposed to initiate force against someone else except, of course, in defence of your own liberty or property. So that's something that's the Golden Rule, and that's something we can all relate to."

"For me, what are you trying to accomplish? You go out and show the world you’re extremely angry? Guess what, sunshine? No one cares. If you want to do something constructive, get out of your echo chamber, get off Facebook and social media where everybody is talking about the same thing you agree with. Stop denigrating and screaming at people you don’t agree with, and go talk with your neighbor who maybe voted for Donald Trump. What you’ll find is they’re not a homophone racist bigot. What they are is generally a common, hard-working decent person who is fed up with a permanent Washington political overclass. They're tired of people in Washington not looking out for their interests."

"I'd also like to thank my Democratic opponent, Linda Haney. We all know that a Democrat is gonna have a struggle in a countywide race in Knox County, but she did step up to the plate and she put fourth a good effort, and I think that is admirable. Democracy works when everyone has a voice and we can hear everyone's ideas."

"What happens if that big red wall is ever breached? If it is, our state and our country will fundamentally change and we can never, ever let that happen. The Republican Party must remain a bulwark against European democratic socialism which unfortunately the Democratic Party has become. In order top do that we have to grow our party, and we have to grow it among young people and among minorities, we have to become more inclusive, but what I mean by that is we do not abandon our ideas, we need to stand even more firm."

"The Republican Party stands for individual liberty [and] free markets; its the party of growth, its the part of economic opportunity, those are things that benefit everyone. That's how we need to grow this party, by ensuring that those are the ideas that we are spreading."

"The problem when you have someone on the hard left or the hard right is they will have to move back to the center in the general election, and I don’t know that Warren can do that as well as Biden could"

"Me: The sky is blue. Twitter: No, it's not. Also Twitter: Trump said the sky is blue. He's lying. More Twitter: Sometimes the sky is red. Why do you hate red sky? Even More Twitter: You're stupid because you think the sky is blue. Yet More Twitter: Republicans say the sky is blue. The sky must be a different color. It doesn't matter what color. It just isn't blue. Additional Twitter: Technically, the sky only appears blue due to the atmosphere's charged particles oscillating and scattering the sunlight passing through it. Blue is scattered more than other colors. Hence, the sky's blue hue. Translation: You don't understand science... ...and you're stupid. Have a great day, everyone!"

"Mr. President, if we, as elected officials, ignore, disregard, and contravene the laws which bind us, how can we expect our fellow citizens to respect and follow the laws which bind all of us as a society? Finally, as an American, I am appalled by your statement; “This is not about freedom or personal choice.” On the contrary, in America, it is always about freedom."

"Along with 54 other Tennessee county mayors and executives, I signed a letter to @GovBillLee @ltgovmcnally @CSexton25 @TNattygen with concerns about @POTUS 's overreach and encouraging them to continue to protect the rights of Tennesseans to make our own health care decisions."

"Thanks to @DDPYoga and low carbs for making 55 look (and feel) this good!"

"So a federal government agency convinced a private company to shadow ban a story which turned out to be true and had massive implications on a presidential election. This is borderline fascism and should worry everyone."

"Today we remember the 13 service members that tragically lost their lives in Afghanistan. We will never forget their service to our nation. Please continue to keep their families in your prayers."

"It was an honor to visit with President Donald Trump. He was friendly, remarkably kind, and incredibly generous with his time."

"If everyone could maybe please put aside the hate for a bit and pitch in to help, that would be great."

"In the past eight years, failed policies have caused our country to deteriorate. Our rights have been trampled, and our security threatened. We are weaker by almost every measure. We are on the wrong path. That is clear even to someone who was not even born here. I came to the United States from Rome, Italy in 1985. I followed all the rules, and finally became a naturalized citizen in 1996. Others who want to come to the U.S. to live and work should follow the same rules. We are a nation of laws for a reason. There should be no shortcuts for those who don’t want to pay or wait"

"I think this country allows you freedom of speech. Anybody should be allowed to say whatever they want. When you’re in my business, you can’t talk about [conservative] politics. You just can’t. You’re attacked viciously in a way that I’ve never been attacked before."

"I was never a politician. I care about my country. I put God first. For the last seven-and-a-half years, I’ve seen this country led by a leader that’s made mistakes. I spoke my mind about it. But because I’m in the industry, you can’t talk about that. The media and the liberals act the way they act: The will back up the president until the end. It’s been interesting. I’ve had fantastic directors who have said officially to my agents and managers they will never hire me again. They will never even see me for projects. That’s unfair."

"What Jim wanted to do, and it was totally his vision, was to get back to the darkness of the original Grimm’s fairy tales. He thought it was fine to scare children. He didn’t think it was healthy for children to always feel safe."

"I helped him direct the movie, but he had the vision. It was because of Jim not accepting the impossible and as a result he would work harder than anybody I’ve ever known because he was the one who led the way by working harder. None of us could say no because he always worked harder than us. When you say special, I think that really is the memory that I have, the incredible upward hill journey that we had to do every single day. It was very tough."

"I’m not involved in the slightest. I say “godspeed.” I am not involved. Nobody’s mentioned it in any way to me whatsoever. I’ll be very curious to see it."

"It seems Mr. Mark Saltzman was asked if Bert & Ernie are gay. It’s fine that he feels they are. They’re not, of course. But why that question? Does it really matter? Why the need to define people as only gay? There’s much more to a human being than just straightness or gayness."

"What I don't like is describing Jim as that he was this wonderful, warm, sweet man because, yes he was a wonderful, warm, sweet man – but he was also the strongest man I ever met in character. He was very tough. He worked like a sonofabitch. He could get cranky and he got snarky at times. He would rarely get angry. I've seen him angry only about three times in my life. He was a very complex guy, but he was that noble spirit."

"Jim didn't have a script – he didn't work that normal way. He wanted to have a laboratory of textures and designs and ideas and rehearsals. He had a story – but he wanted the script to work in conjunction with the laboratory of creating the characters."

"This is Jim – he said, "Would you direct Dark Crystal with me?" and I said, "Why? I don't know how to direct. You could do it yourself. Why would you want me to direct with you?" He said, "Because it would be better." And that's all that mattered. He didn't care about the credit. He knew that he had some weaknesses and he felt that I had some strengths, and so we worked together that way."

"It was not smooth at all, and it was because of me, not because of Jim. Jim should have ****in' fired me several times. Jim was extraordinarily patient. I was a young guy who wanted to make his mark in the world, and if I was the co-director, by God why wasn't I attending more meetings and why didn't I get more say in things? I had a problem of self-esteem and it came through that way. It was difficult for Jim, not for me. It was frustrating for me, but that was an unhealthy frustration. It worked because Jim was patient."

"This season I've been on more of a plant-based diet, getting away from all the animals and all that. I had to get away from that. So my energy is up, my body feels amazing. Just understanding what the diet is like for me and what’s beneficial for me for having the highest energy out here and being able to sustain it at a very high level."

"Theater is the only thing that still belongs to the people"

"Prison is a society within a society. It’s a reflection of life in the streets. The jargon may be different, but we think and feel the same as on the streets and we recreate it in prison."

"His poetry and the plays are so fraught with the things that aggravated and influenced him and ultimately made his life successful. He took this form and infused it with an urban, Latin lifeblood that had never been used in poetry before. He was remarkable as a writer in terms of never really self-editing himself or censoring himself."

"I happen to feel that [Piñero] was a romantic character and there was something about his love for land that was very wonderful, the way he held Puerto Rico, that elusive homeland in the foreground of his thoughts and writing. For all of us who are uprooted and thrown into this city, to keep a semblance of that is always so dignified. That would make it perhaps a bit nostalgic for me because people like that don’t seem to be around anymore."

"When I started writing, there were only two women writers that I knew: Lorraine Sutton and Margie Simmons. There were very few Latinas writing in English... So when I started, I was mainly surrounded by men-Pedro Pietri, Jesus Papoleto Melendez, Lucky Cienfuegos, Miguel Algarín, Miguel Piñero, Tato Laviera. Many of them had books already published. I was like a sponge, absorbing different things from these male contemporaries."

"I ask myself those questions sometimes…But no, I think you're a slave to your own sensibility, and your own artistic desires and dreams, and I'm still motivated by them. I'm certainly not going to wait around for someone from Hollywood to call me. I can't control if anyone's thinking of me, or wants to put me in a movie, I can't control that. So I don't preoccupy myself with that world, because that world's an ever-changing animal, and there are new flavours of the month every month, and you might be one, one month, and then not the next. I'm blessed that I've been in that game in my life, but what I'm concerned with on a daily level is what I'm interested in."

"I'm American completely, and I think I appreciate America more than a lot of Americans do…In fact I know I do. Because America has offered me the freedoms that were taken away from me in Cuba, and so I have an enormous appreciation and respect and gratitude for that country, and I value what it stands for."

"I was born in Havana and my family left when I was five-and-a-half. I remember the transition and some memories of being in Havana. I tried to analyze this and I think all exiles who have to leave a country you love, develop a profound nostalgia for where you were born but can no longer be there – like an impossible love. You protect those memories and don’t take them for granted. It’s different for someone who grew up and still lives in the same city because they do take their memories for granted. For me, I’m very nostalgic – not only about my time in Havana, but my 30 years in Miami Beach. All those memories are pretty vivid and I guard and cherish them. I also use those recollections in my work."

"I find solace in my country’s music, all my life. It’s been a great inspiration to me. In ‘The Lost City,’ the protagonist of the movie is the music. I tried to weave the elements of the Cuban culture, and historical elements that happened at that time. [It’s] a very classical film in a way, the structure using a family as a microcosm of what is going on in the society, brothers against brothers politically, a father trying to keep his family together, impossible love: You can love her but you can’t be with her, which is the relationship of every exile in the world with his home country."

"I won’t stop singing in Spanish...It’s my mother tongue. [It’s] important to let people know more about Latin culture and exchange a little bit — it’s what I’ve been doing for seven years, since I released my first solo album."

"Being Ricky Martin back then and what I was feeling were not compatible...I was the sex symbol and I needed to dance and I needed to make girls crazy and I couldn't say that I was gay. It was a struggle."

"...the most uncomfortable and saddest times of my life. I thought my emotions were evil because that’s what they told me. You’re not supposed to feel like this."

"Superman has got nothing on me because my kids gave me that perspective...They don’t know what they did for me. Maybe they’ll find out now and will read about it when they are big. They’ll understand what they did for me. If they gave up their piggy bank, then I have to give mine."

"My overall philosophy was to continue to do good work, to expand my range, and to show that range. I think Hollywood can certainly try to put you into boxes. My entire career has been somewhat of a reflection of my college theater experience, and that was, I did everything. Not only did I do Shakespeare and Molière, but I did Mamet and John Patrick Shanley; contemporary playwrights. I was writing in college, I was directing in college, and when I got to Hollywood, I tried to continue that. I think my first three roles in Hollywood are somewhat indicative of that. You’ve got 'La Bamba,' then 'Stand and Deliver,' then 'Young Guns.' All three films are very different, and all three characters are extremely different."

"Once you wrap your brain around playing your age, it's a very, very positive thing…"

"When I did La Bamba and Stand and Deliver, I marched with Cesar Chavez and fasted with him. Whatever I have directed, I've flipped roles to be more inclusive of ethnic, female and LBGQ performers. This is a flag I've waved from the beginning. I got into the door and kept my foot in it so others could come in behind me."

"I have never felt that Hollywood is mine, and I've never felt like the King of Hollywood. I've always felt lucky to be included... to be invited to the party. I guess because I've never expected my career to be as successful as it has been – I'd still be acting for free in Dallas, Texas if La Bamba had never come along. This has always been my love and my passion – my work – and so to be doing it at the level I'm doing, I'm quite happy…"

"Hollywood was a detour, although my mother was an aristocrat from Tokyo who ran away to join the theatre, so acting is in my genes. I've played a lot of bad guys, including a torturing acupuncturist in my first B-movie, but one of my favourite roles was a surfing grandfather from Hawaii in the film Johnny Tsunami. My father's family are Hawaiian, so it was the closest to my own personality."

"One was my movement, which I’m very conscious of in films, especially coming from martial arts. Think about how many times a character is seen just sitting or walking or standing, it’s a lot of time in film and it says so much about a character. So I’ve always been keen to pay attention to movement and that was one thing he said he noticed. Never have I heard a director talk like that about me. And also he said that the eyes were important because it really has to come through the make-up. So he was interested in those two aspects especially…"

"Nothing ever stops me. Certainly coming into Hollywood, I knew that there would be certain limitations. But I also couldn’t play a woman or I couldn’t play a white hero. To play Asian and to speak with accents because I speak Japanese, it never really bothered me. All I always look for in every piece is how can I use this piece to move to the next step? So the worst thing about playing Asian bad guys would be to not be remembered…"

"One thing I have to say about Japanese anime is that there’s a certain sort of tone there that bypasses the Asian part. And the characters really turn into something more Western. I’d like to see a true Japanese character. We don’t need to make the eyes look round, we don’t need the light in her hair. We can have dark hair and the eyes look like mine. They can be speaking English. We have Asian-Americans. And certainly there are plenty of people from Hawaii that are very Asian and totally local. It’s part of America…"

"Here’s what an Asian person looks like to a majority white audience…But if you go to Korea, the characters are just humans because they’re not thinking about it like that. That’s something that I was made aware of [with Burning], which was really wonderful for me to know. I didn’t have to represent all Asians. I could just represent myself."

"These days I feel my otherness in every situation…If I go to Korea, there are reminders that I’m not fully Korean. I can speak it – and I look it there – but there are cultural and historical things that I don’t have because I wasn’t necessarily raised there. They really form the identity of being Korean and I’m missing parts of those…a man with no country…That’s the kind of place I’m operating from."

"Let's not mess with your Americana that's kind of embedded into your body. The food that you've eaten, the choices that you've made, the way that you think - don't alter those things. Instead, just - let's work on the language so that you can be unequivocally Korean. But let's leave these mysterious Western encodings in your body alone. And I think that created its inherent kind of, like, dissonance with that character where you don't know who or what and where he's from."

"You know, the concept of even an Asian-American person and a man has morphed and changed even in the last decade by a lot. You know, there's moments where people were super psyched that an Asian man was in a relationship with a white woman. And that was, like, a big point of victory for a moment…"

"I went to an acting school while I was a cop still…The moment I was involved in that world, it electrified me and I realized that it was something that I wanted to do"

"He looked at me like I was thinking outside of the reality of where we were at…And I respected my father. He was a good man, he was a good father, so I kind of like, really just put it in the back of my head. I really didn't pursue it much."

"I don’t have a dream role. Every role I get is my dream role. Whatever the role… I have to commit to every time."

"The thing is that there aren’t many stories told that are being shown to everybody from this, so any opportunity that I have to see a project that we could just release that to people that they could see a slice of life that they may not recognize or they may not know. It’s about family, it’s about being good people, it’s about culture, whether it’s music, theater, arts. And the opportunity to show that in a neighborhood and in a culture that I grew up in is very important to me."

"I have seen all manner of drugs on set, at parties, in cars, everywhere. If I had to guess, I would put marijuana use at 90 percent of all people involved in the industry (performers, directors, crew, agents, drivers, owners, office workers, etc.). I have been on a set where a girl has passed out DURING a sex scene with me (she was abusing oxycontin). Just recently a girl overdosed on GHB (a party drug that is a clear, odorless drug that doesn't mix well with alcohol) on set. I have seen a girl win a prestigious AVN Award, not show up to accept the award, and then fall into the throes of drug use that caused her to lose at least 50 pounds and drop off the face of the earth."

"They posted my real name, the real names of my parents and pictures of them, their home address and telephone number, the name and picture and phone number of my brother, a picture of the cemetery where my grandfather recently passed away, not to mention saying that I have HIV."

"If you can just convey it to someone in a genuine way, with a scenario or explain why it is what it is, that’s the most helpful thing. But you also have to give some kind of creative freedom to the people who are doing the voices and doing those roles – because if they got the job and they know the characters well they’re gonna do well. So a lot of that is just having a good cast and then facilitating it, let them be creative and then if something has to be tweaked, just be very helpful with how it needs to be tweaked."

"I still like the guys in the suit myself, I mean I was a guy in a suit I guess, but I think it still can be fun to do."

"For the most part, the roles Asians can get aren't necessarily well-rounded, and more often than not, they're stereotypes. But that's all we have. And then we see each other all the time at auditions, because we're all going for the same role. I've made a lot of friends that way."

"No joke, it’s completely split down the middle. Half the people think I’m Japanese and the other half thinks that I’m Korean. The Koreans would want me to be Korean and the Japanese would want me to be Japanese. When I was in Korea, people just assumed I was Korean and when I was in Japan they assumed I was Japanese. And sometimes for the non-Koreans (or non-Japanese), I would get Chinese or general Asian."

"I’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of different people and we are all buddies from going to events and film festivals as you get to meet a lot of the same people. It’s kind of one big niche group that all knows one another. I’m just very fortunate to be a part of this industry and be a part of the Asian-American film family. Hopefully in the future we can all progress together and set a standard for Asian-Americans as well as how the mainstream looks upon us."

"I think I can say that I am more in touch with my Korean side because of my upbringing and strong Korean Mom. Also, for the past 10 years, I have been taking care of my Korean Grandmother more…so their Korean traits have influenced me in my life. However, that still doesn’t take anything away from my Japanese roots. I think both cultures have instilled in me the morals, values, customs and traditions I live by. I’m in touch with both sides…it’s not a sense of “meaning” but a sense of “being” that I am proud of."

"I think we need people to be bold and brave. We need people to be conscious of what they're writing and the stories that they're telling. I feel like so many people are afraid about whether people will watch it, but the bottom line is our industry has proven that if it's good, people will watch it. If you find a good, compelling story, whether it's AAPI, multicultural or not, be brave to tell it. As far as the AAPI community is concerned, we as a community need to stand up, speak up and speak out much more. We need to be in the room where the decisions are made. We need to be in front of and behind the cameras, but also sharing our stories for the next generation. If you put all of those things together, we’ll have the progress that we need in order to create change."

"If we’re talking about purely historical content, I think having an understanding of one another definitely bridges certain gaps. I think this hate stems from fear, and if we can have that connection and historical factual sense of belonging and being here, I feel it would bridge certain gaps of hate and fear that we all live with today. At least we're trying to create progress in a larger way."

"It's the transformation that drives me. I want to do it all and never want to be boxed into something as a particular type or style. I never want people to think they know me. I hope to build a repertoire that one can look at and say, from to role to role, 'Was that Brian Tee?'"

"There is as much wisdom in listening as there is in speaking - and that goes for all relationships, not just romantic ones."

"It takes facing obstacles to grow strong enough to overcome them."

"As someone of Korean descent, I am certain my road was a bit hard. I have to say anyone who's an aspiring actor has a difficult road regardless of race."

"It's one thing to talk about lack of diversity and lack of representation. But that doesn't matter if you're not good at what you're supposed to be doing."

"But there’s no doubt it stung when I felt like the people I was trying to respect and please the most were the ones who were critical of me. It was painful because, as my career since then has borne out, I take a great deal of pride in being Korean American. I know that not every representation is 100 percent something we can stand behind all the time, but I choose to look at things as whether they’re moving the needle of progress on a larger scale."

"I think any time you have an ensemble of actors, everyone’s objectives are unique and individual. So it’s hard for me to collectively say whether they were allies in this…. I do know that the way things got spun by the end changed my relationships with them."

"Alone we are much weaker than if we are allied with others who care, not just about Asian Americans, but about the issue of hate and discrimination and bigotry in general. Now I wouldn’t deign to try and compare the Asian American experience to any other minorities’ experience in America, because each one is unique in their own ways. But what we do have in common is that we have all experienced bigotry. We have all experienced prejudice. What’s most important to understand is that this is a human issue. This is not just an Asian American one."

"The fact that you have representation on TV means that you can have an understanding of someone who doesn’t necessarily look like you and that understanding can bring acceptance and empathy. And so that’s why it’s important to have a positive but fully fleshed out portrayals of Asian Americans in the media."

"I think there are pluses and minuses to the emergence of Asian cinema in America. It's about time that a lot of these films got recognized because there are very talented people behind them - the directors, actors, writers. I don't think it is a coincidence that a lot of stories from Asia are being remade by American studios. They are really interesting stories and deserve to be shown here."

"Be proud to be Asian. Be proud to be American. You've earned the right to be both and we can all work together to be a united America. That's the hope. That's the dream."

"You know, someone once said that we have, you know, a privilege card, because we are not necessarily African American or Latinx. And part of that privilege card has been perpetuated this idea, the model minority myth. But what we've been finding is that in times of stress that privilege card gets taken away very quickly and then we're reduced to someone--to a group of people who is considered other and not American."

"I personally believe that education is the key to freedom. Actually, literacy is the key to freedom because you can educate yourself."

"My life was changed forever. My first day as an actor, Cicely Tyson played my mother, Maya Angelou played my grandmother. I was 19, and they embraced me as a peer. They schooled me. They certainly taught me what it meant to be a professional, but they assumed that because I was there I belonged there, and they treated me as such. It was an extraordinary experience for a young person."

"I wouldn’t want to be a young and emerging talent in today’s environment of the 24-hour news cycle and social media and a camera in everyone’s hand. I can’t imagine how much that adds to the burden of the journey."

"I am a huge fan of science fiction! Throughout my life I have marveled at the powerful, even transformative nature of speculative storytelling. The influence science fiction storytelling is having in popular culture right now is amazing to behold, and as a genuine fan of the medium, I truly believe we are in a New Age of speculative fiction. There is a pleasing phenomenon developing in the genre recently: the worthy inclusion of voices of color, which are being paid much overdue attention. Why this is important should be self-evident. However, for those sitting way in the back, consider this: we continually create the world we occupy-in our imaginations first, and only afterwards do we make those visions manifest in this world. So it stands to reason that a healthy society is one that respects and honors the voices of ALL of its components. For too long, the voices and visions for our future have been provided, for the most part, by and from a culturally European (if not Eurocentric) perspective. However, there is change afoot. The works of Octavia E. Butler are becoming mainstream, and names like Nnedi Okorafor and Lesley Nneka Arimah are bringing much needed flavor to the narratives that help shape our future."

"Jaymee Goh, Darcie Little Badger, Indrapramit Das. These are voices that are sorely needed if we are to chart a course for humanity that does not result in the destructive practices of our past. The exploration of space and our eventual close encounters with other intelligent species will require us to leave our "colonizer" mentality behind and embrace an attitude of openness and humility we have to cultivate, let alone master. When a world leader advocates for the creation of a militaristic Space Force to exercise "dominance" in the heavens, we are moving further than ever from Gene Roddenberry's United Federation of Planets. Instead, our exploration into the unknown should cause us to examine who we are as sentient beings, and science fiction as a tool for social change makes for a most welcome companion on our journey."

"“Our ways as Indigenous people go hand in hand with this land, because we are the land. All of us are the land.”"

"“It’s great to finally have representation of our Indigenous people. We don’t look one way; we’re diverse. Having that representation is going to echo out our voices to be heard in spaces that they're usually not heard. I hope that inspires creativity within our community, and also confidence—a sense of confidence to be strong and to hold our head high.”"

"“Long hair to me is a symbol of pride. A pride that has been marketed as shameful by Western belief systems. Back in the day, Indigenous children across the Americas were forced into boarding schools, and the idea was to kill the Indian, save the man. They would cut off our hair and would physically and mentally abuse us to forget our cultural ways and language and to forcefully take on someone else’s. I wear my hair long to honor my ancestors and the sacrifice they made, because they didn’t have a choice. I have the option to grow it long. So I hold my hair with pride.”"

"“You can’t run from your reflection… you can try to lighten your skin, change your hair, but the one thing you can’t run from is yourself. I want to influence people of color to be proud of where they come from and to reconnect with their roots.”"

"When you have a dream and you kind of bury it because you think it won’t come true, to see it finally come true is incredible."

"For the longest time, all I wanted was just a job. Just an opportunity to act, to show people what I can do. This movie, ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once,’ has given me so much beyond anything I could have ever asked for."

"There are so many people out there who doubt themselves, who have dreams they’ve given up or didn’t think would ever come true. To those people, I hope my story inspires them."

"I grew up with very traditional Chinese family values. Since I was a little kid, my parents taught me to internalize the emotions that we have instead of projecting them outward. It’s very contradicting to what an actor is. With all these internalized emotions, I just needed to spend a long time with myself and bring all of that out."

"When I walk on a movie set, knowing how difficult it is to get to have this opportunity, I’m always grateful. I didn’t think I would have this amazing second act as an actor in my early 50s, and I hope my story inspires someone to not give up on their dreams."

"When I got back into acting, I decided I was going to go back to my birth name – that was really important to me."

"I noticed Asian actors were getting more opportunities, and I began to harbour this dream of getting back into acting, but it took a lot of courage to give voice to that dream. One day I decided: if I don’t do this, I will regret it."

"Everything happens for a reason. For the longest time I was so insecure and always felt like I wasn’t good enough. Every time I lost a job to somebody else, I thought: ‘That man deserves the job better than I did.’ Now I understand that everything needed to happen the way it did. Just don’t give up."

"My stepping away from acting was not an easy decision to make. I had to be realistic: There were not a lot of opportunities for an Asian actor at that time. I had no choice but to do something else, so I went to film school, graduated, and started working behind the camera."

"But I think I’ve cried more in the last six months than I cried in the previous 20 years. Hearing all these wonderful comments from people about how much they’ve missed me on the screen and their warm embrace of my return has made me very emotional."

"The irony, like I said, is that I didn't pursue acting when I was a little kid. But as I got older, in my late teens and early 20s, I really took it seriously. That’s what I wanted to do, what I wanted my profession to be. But when I started pursuing it, there were just not a lot of opportunities for me. It was extremely difficult for an Asian actor at that time. In Hollywood, very, very few child actors make smooth and successful transitions into adult acting. It's very difficult for many, but I think it's a hundred times—a thousand times—more difficult when you are an Asian actor. I found myself at a crossroads at a very early age. Do I want to continue down a path where I just didn't see many opportunities for myself? Or do I want to go down a path, an unknown path, where I really don't know what I want to do? And I struggled for a long, long time. And at the same time, I was just hoping that phone would ring with an amazing offer to be in a movie like Indiana Jones or The Goonies, or a great role for an Asian actor, and it never came. I was so dispirited and disheartened."

"I was raised to never forget where I came from and to always remember who gave me my first opportunity."

"As I grew older, I started to wonder if that was it, if that was just luck. For so many years, I was afraid I had nothing more to offer. No matter what I did, I would never surpass what I achieved as a kid."

"This time last year, all I was hoping for was just a job. And just when I think that it can’t get any better, it does. What an incredible honor."

"When I stepped away, that dream, all the dreams that I had of, you know, imagining one day of walking down the red carpet at the Oscars, those scenes dissipated and they were so distant that I didn't think they would ever come back. And so for me to be here today, to be nominated, it is so surreal. And it goes to show that, you know, if you stick with it, dreams do come true no matter how long it takes."

"When you are able to let your expectation of what might be go and listen to what is proposed, then you can create a new vision for yourself and see yourself walking in those shoes again."

"I’m acting but not acting because I’m in such a place where, as an actor, all I have to do is listen. Whether it be your voice, who I’m talking to, or whether it be the voice inside me — and maybe that’s the key that I’ve never, ever talked about."

"These are the things I look for because I’m more seasoned than I was years ago. Directing is not about me. As an actor, God, it becomes all about me, and I don’t want it to be about me anymore. I’ve had enough of me."

"The words are important, but the intention is of even greater importance. My job is to interpret that. As an actor, I’m an interpreter and a channeler. As a director, I’m able to interpret and then channel something original, infuse it with an original energy that extends and tells the story even more clearly."

"As a director, I always look for projects that are uplifting and change the way we think about the world we live in, so those films aren’t always mainstream. I’m looking to do something that encompasses a man who’s trying to find himself, but it’s an action film. He’s struggling with something he’s done in his past and he’s moving through it in a way that puts him in a position where he becomes a stranger in a strange land. I want to tackle that."

"I mean for me to play desire, to play the desire not to be lonely is one thing, to play the desire to allow someone to know me. Right. So I relate to that in my life. Because people know me in my life as Gus Fring or Moff Gideon or Stan Edgar or a plethora of other characters. And so who really knows me? And do I want them to know me? Right. It depends on who that is. Right. So I used to want fans to know me, but now they know me through a variety of different characters. So then I have to ask myself, what is the reveal for me? And it’s the same for Gus. In that moment I’m thinking, oh, I desire to be known. For me I know I desire to be loved, I desire to be admired. I desire to be held. Thank goodness I have children who I can, I have daughters who I become more and more real, the more mature I get because I’m able to ask, I tell them, ask for what you want, but do I tell myself to ask for what I want?"

"I look for a complete script. I look for characters who are inspiring, and who move our imaginations from one place to another. It just so happens that I’ve been asked to play characters in certain projects that have had somewhat of an edge, a darker side, if you will."

"I look at things to uplift me and to enthuse me; I don’t look at things to pay the bills and help me just survive. While some may be terrified of the characters he’s played, the actor views his antagonists in a different light. What I feel with each character is an excitement and enthusiasm, a deep commitment and vulnerability to allow them to speak to me."

"In life, we experience relationships sometimes as being traumatic, especially when outside events affect our parents. When they make decisions that we hold them responsible for –– that affect our lives, not knowing all of the reasons they made those decisions for their life –– [it] creates a little bit of [a] gap and a little bit of a traumatic experience."

"As children, we think that everything that’s done by our parents is done because of us, and sometimes that’s not very true. Sometimes things can never be right, but they can be understood in a different way if we’re able to listen to each other and do that vulnerable dance that’s required of us."

"I love parts of the story that reflect our innocence and then guide us to understanding. From seeing when we become hardened and non-innocent, how sweet those moments were and from whence we came."

"I've had some success in bringing some humanity to some of the villains that I played because I want to show that people are human and they do make mistakes and they do have the light and dark sides of themselves, and I had an idea that if we saw some of that we might be able to get wrapped around that in a way that we weren't able to before."

"You can't just cast off someone when you realise, oh, there's something inside that person that is a hint of something good," Esposito adds. "Why are they doing all this bad and then as TV shows unfold, you sort of get the clue. They were bullied when they were a child. They really seek all power, all of these things. So I found a niche and finding a way to bring some humanity in some ways to villainous persona."

"I had to find a way to drop my spirit and allow myself to be more observant of other people. So in the first years of Breaking Bad, I liked to do the method routine because it kept people away from me. No one wanted to come and say hello or chat about the weather. I’m not that chatty guy on set. I’m not the joker. Now after 12 years of playing the character, I can allow myself to be a bit looser."

"I come from a European family. I had a very worldly way of looking at humanity and people and culture and religion, so I was surprised coming to America in 1962 as a young child to find there was this delineation [between races] here."

"Sometimes I can’t even see out of my eyes because I’ve gone to a very dead drop space. Well, you could call it dead but maybe it’s actually very much alive. People get uncomfortable when you’re really listening, when you’re really paying attention, because we’re not used to that anymore. But now I can really see you. I can see all of you"

"My father [Yahya Abdul-Mateen] prayed for his parents every day and took them along the journey with them"

"I can only hope to do the same, and one way I can do that is by holding on to the second [in my name], because that means you have to acknowledge the first too: my father"

"My name is not the name you’d pick out of a hat – Yahya Abdul-Mateen the second is no John Wayne, it’s not traditionally the guy at the top of the billing. And that’s why it’s so inspiring to people. I get messages all the time saying, ‘Thank you brother for representing for us Muslims. I was thinking about changing my name, but now that I see you, I’ll never change it"

"For a lot of aspiring actors and artists around the world, America is the destination, the comparison"

"So to have my name at the top of the billing on my own for Candyman, right up there on Aquaman, and next to Keanu Reeves in a big production like The Matrix is huge. To be validated, to hold my own, and to go on talk shows where they say my entire name, that’s inspiring"

"I remembered that acting thing I had a really fun time with when I took the class and I said ‘Okay, I’m going to go try that for a little bit"

"I’m so thankful every day"

"I got off to a really fast start ... I kind of just skyrocketed out of graduate school"

"It's 1:00 a.m., and I'm trying to get her to be quiet, but she's still screaming, so I just stopped and let her walk"

"I knew there was no rationalizing with this person. Two minutes later, I walked up to the studio and sat down at a computer. I saw her across the room, but she wouldn’t make eye contact"

"I went back to my computer to work, and I remember being so angry that I cried"

"It was frustrating. I deserved to be there. Period. That was my reminder that even if I did everything right -- played the game by the book -- some things in life would be unavoidable. Because I was Black. I was 18 years old. I did the only thing I knew to do. I cried, and I swallowed that s**t"

"With my therapist, I wanted to be able to talk about being Black. I wanted to be able to use my vernacular," he said. "I didn't want to have to explain what it felt like to have someone follow me around the store. I just wanted to talk about the fact that it happened and have that person understand"

"Black men—Black people in general—don’t have a reason to trust America. History will tell you that, at the end of the day, we’re going to be the first ones to be manipulated and systematically taken advantage of"

"There’s a stigma around mental health in the Black community, particularly with men, that means we don’t talk about how we’re feeling, and it was strange to be around Black people who openly discussed seeing a therapist"

"There was this collective curiosity that I didn’t even know was there. Historic disenfranchisement kept those resources out of reach to the point that many believed that our rejection of therapy was primarily cultural. I’m glad to see this narrative changing. We’ve got a lot of internal healing to do in this world, and therapy is going to be a big part of that. With the right relationship, therapy can be a safe space where we can be heard and seen in a world that too often chooses not to hear or see us"

"We need people like myself with a platform to continue to speak out and to be standing and doing the right thing. And so sometimes I question whether or not I’m doing the right thing by being away from America right now. I donate my money, my time. I use my platform to amplify others’ voices, and sometimes that feels like it isn’t enough. I want to be on the ground. The people I love, my family, my close friends, the Black women in my life—they tell me to be kind to myself, to stay informed, and to stay ready. So that’s what I try to do for now"

"Black Family, don’t feel guilty for laughing and feeling joy today. We need that too"

"Everything should be about getting to the truth. But sometimes you got to know which movie or genre you’re in,"

"That world is enormous. And I joined that world way into that run; a train that was already moving. Normally, I come in way early on and I get to figure it out…I was freaking out. It was a scene with [Samuel L.] Jackson, Tom [Holland]…there were a number of actors in that scene. And I remember not being able to remember my lines. I was the wooden board. And they were like, ‘Whoa"

"I didn’t want to show up like, ‘I have a confession,’ so I taught myself"

"[Watchmen] was also a story about a god who came down to earth to reciprocate to a Black woman all the love that she deserved"

"He'd offer her sacrifice and support, passion [and] protection. And he did all that in the body of a Black man. I'm so proud that I was able to walk into those shoes"

"So I dedicate this award to all the Black women in my life"

"The people who believed in me first — I call you my early investors. I love you. I appreciate you. And this one is for you. Thank you"

"It's important to listen to Black women because they got the answers"

"There was such a wide variety of subject matter that it kept me on the hook. That was something that I could call my friends and family and talk about. I feel like television and film were very important over quarantine; for me, that became a way to connect to other people. And instead of talking about sports or talking about whatever event was going on, or where we were going—the variety of things that can happen in a day—my conversations, a lot of the time, switched to television"

"I saw a lot of people validate the history of trauma in this country, and the ways in which a traumatic event can happen to someone in one generation, and two generations later you see their offspring or their grandchildren still dealing with that. To me, that idea is very important to legitimize because we live in a society, in America specifically, that is so much in a rush to move past all the dark parts of its history. There’s so much of a rush to just put that behind us, that it often causes us to ignore, to not deal with it. And it causes us to not be able to realize the way that we still perpetuate it and create an environment for that trauma to continue to exist and persist"

"There’s a lot of work out there, which makes for a wide variety of creativity and conversation. And most of all, employment, for a lot of really, really good actors"

"I woke up two months ago and said “Whoa, whoa whoa! I’m an actor, how"

"A few months ago I was still in school and no one knew who I was and now I’m on a show and my publicist is calling me! It’s so exciting. I’m just taking things day by day."

"I’m the youngest of six kids and I grew up with a lot of noise, a lot of music and a lot of laughter"

"My father was Muslim and my mom is Christian, and we moved from New Orleans to Oakland, so I always had this appreciation for different cultures. Between those dichotomies and with eight people living in the house together, there was always drama. But it was enjoyable drama"

"I think it would be irresponsible of me to not be aware of the climate [in Hollywood] when it comes to the conversation about diversity"

"But I like to consider myself an actor, and one of the assets that I have is that I’m black. And that I’m 6’3″! I just want to do work that gets people excited and makes them feel things, no matter their economic or racial background"

"Performing artists are less political today than they were years ago because they're not called on to be political"

"We have freedom. What we don't have is equality!"

"They knew what to say because it fell into the existing rhetoric"

"The struggle and the arts are connected almost by definition"

"I had a sense of certainty that no matter how dark it is now, one of these days it'll change."

"Optimism is small and personal"

"One of the traps we've tried to avoid is the presentation of ourselves as victims or beggars"

"We're going somewhere, even if it's only around the Goddamn corner"

"when the time comes we'll give each other our own Oscar and attend our own funerals and screw the rest of it if necessary"

"Colorblind casting shouldn't violate common sense"

"Criticism used to be an art practiced by educated people. Now you don't know what any of them are looking for in anything"

"I have less opportunities than I used to, but I don't think there's any prejudice against me because of my age"

"Art has a deep responsibility, social, cultural, and otherwise. And that the basic motivation for the creation of art is, in a sense, to meet those responsibilities. Now, it doesn't mean that you cannot express yourself in any way you want to, but it takes place in a social context, whether you mean it to do so or not"

"I fully expected that a black man particularly would by lynched from time to time because it was going on when I came into the world"

"It was a tradition that had gone all the way back into slavery, as long as we knew ourselves, we knew this as a part of the world in which we lived. We related to it on an individual basis, as it happened, we related to the incidents."

"We knew that if we lived within those parameters there was a world, that was really to some degree a safe world, and a world that provided us, reaffirmed us as to whom we were because it was a black world"

"But there were limits of the power that the black community had. It could not punish those from the outside who wrought crime against us, it could not demand that justice be done, it could beg, it could pray, you know, it could cajole, it could wheedle, you know, but it could never insist, and we knew that that was a limit"

"We were not by any means a helpless community, cowering against, under the boot heel of the oppressor"

"Blacks are by and large are still, in a majority sense, Democrats"

"If you can’t outfight the man, outsmart him"

"in the end it is history that will tell the story"

"The history of the black man on the frontier – and, indeed, the history of the Indian – has never really been paid attention to in the movies."

"There is a lot of American history waiting to be rediscovered, once you get away from the official version"

"I would say that a deeper patriotism is required when we consider to whom we owe our patriotic response"

"I come together to say, I choose to live for brotherhood and not for folly. I choose peace and not war. I choose life and not death."

"I don’t think being a celebrity or being anything else overrides the responsibility to be a decent, humane citizen"

"I’d hate to go to hell and say I was busy trying to save the Oscars"

"Mankind, humankind is at stake"

"Peace, peace, peace. This is where it’s at, and this is where I am."

"Since I was a little boy huddled up next to my grandmother, television has always been my reliable friend, so it is an enormous honor for me to host this year's Emmy Awards"

"Throughout the roller-coaster of a year that we have all lived through, television has helped us stay connected as a society like never before. It not only entertained us, but as it always has, it helped to open our eyes, educate us, and hopefully brought about a better understanding of who we are as a people"

"St. Louis is a very polarizing city. It's been pretty segregated most my life. But we’ve been a city that has gotten along. It's kind of hard to see these injustices on any level where it feels like the people are now separated again along racial lines"

"I do think it's important that as a community, as a city that we understand that this is about getting some answers and getting some healing, so we're not dealing with these issues every week"

"I think the key thing is to not only be outraged, and have your emotions on a high level, you also have to really get involved with what can be done to change things"

"Get in relationships with people who can actually cause some change,"

"I never thought my way of thinking would equate to comedy"

"I was there watching these guys, and I was like, ‘You know what? I’m ready to try"

"I put some stuff together, and man, the next thing you know, boom. Wow. The response changed my whole outlook on everything. I couldn’t sleep that night"

"I talked about the commercial: The white parents would let all these kids come in and just open the refrigerator and just be in there and get something to drink, and they pull out some Sunny Delight"

"I was like, ‘If it was where I’m from, you had to go to the side of someone’s house, to the refrigerator.’ That was one of my first jokes"

"Just living, but living outside of the box and doing different things. Everything’s in play. You just have to watch what you say, because the landscape we’re living in is challenging. But I try to be wide open"

"I never stop. You’ve got to keep creating"

"We tried too early on to push our stuff out there to the bigger people — like the ones you mentioned [Netflix and Amazon]. It quickly turned into a ‘no,’ but I think with the success of the shows and us doing it on our own kind of proved to me that we can do this by ourselves"

"We don’t need to have anybody else, but we definitely tried, and it was a lot of ‘no’s.’ So I think that was the reason why we went and banked on ourselves [and] put all our money into it. So it’s just me and my own personal production company 4Lifers"

"That’s what I want to build. You ain’t gotta understand this. You have to surround yourself with good people and hardworking people that have the same vision as you"

"It was a collaborative approach on the creative where they gave me the freedom to interject personalities from my world into the content, which helped to organically connect the two spaces. It was entertaining to play various school characters while highlighting SNIPES in a fresh way. I look forward to continued work with SNIPES as they’ve shown they are authentic and true to the culture"

"I graduated twelve years ago, barely…That’s what made my personality today — that school"

"The same school I was getting kicked out of is is the same school I’m shooting the commercial at n"

"I mainly do it for the fans, knowing that I can do it myself. And now that I have money from brand deals and people that I work with to do it, it’s like I don’t need another company to come in"

"We’re very picky about who we work with"

"For the majority of my company, For Life Entertainment, we try to make sure that we have a say in any of the stuff that we’re putting out, or any of the commercial stuff"

"So many people are starting to find out that they can do it themselves, which is why I pride myself on what we have done"

"I hope others will follow that same process and know that if you are getting money from these companies, don’t just think that you have to go buy a car or go buy a big house"

"A smart thing you can do is try to build your own IP and try to build your own business around you"

"Expect the unexpected. It's like talking to your family members, and making everybody laugh"

"People being real. It's got to be real to make me laugh. Either it's real, or someone's told me a bold-face lie. I think it's funny because if they think I believe that, they must be crazy"

"A woman's prayer, how powerful it is in a man's life. If you get a woman on your side to pray for you, things can change in a different way"

"We speak of real life and with real drama that's going on, and situations people know of and have heard of. If you watch a Kountry Wayne sketch, you're going to get a lot of situations"

"Just know they're coming to see the real. We'll be there all the way live, and I've come to make them laugh"

"Now, a lot of people like, ‘Wayne, you leaving millions of dollars on the table,’ but the reason being, I tell everybody when God tells you to move, you got to move sometimes"

"Sometimes you got to lose to win. Everything I got going right now, I put it on the backburner for standup for years. If y’all can remember, back in the day, when I went and did standup, I had to stop doing social media content"

"Everybody was mad because I had to leave social media, but I had to leave social media to become the person I am in standup today"

"Now, I’m leaving standup because there’s a lot of stuff in Hollywood that I got going on that I got to do. And, God got a lot in me, and creating these ideas that I put together, which is the ideas that you love"