All Quotes

"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"

"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"

"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."

"The one thing I learnt in the time off is that it was always a behaviour thing. I must be the same person on the field as I am off the field."

"Cricket is a game where you wake up and you have another day."

"entered rehab and that humbled me, but I still didn't admit that I was an alcoholic. At that point I realised that if I lose my cricket career, so be it ... It was my life that I was trying to get back. Whether I had a career coming back, it didn't matter."

"No-one turned their backs on me during my struggles. I'm no longer playing for myself like before because it was always about me, now it is about how I get better for the team."

"I'm not worried about what happens on the outside now, I'm more focused on getting the simple things right and looking at the package."

"I am my biggest critic, but in 2023 I learnt I have to fill in the work and everything will take care of itself."

"I don't see it as success. For me, it's literally just the 24 hours that is very important to me. And I think when I went into treatment, that was the one thing that I wasn't focused on. I was more focused on what I am doing outside of the game."

"You literally focus on that day because that's the most important."

"If I think too far ahead, I don't know whether relapse is coming tomorrow. But if I know that I'm sorting out what I'm meant to do today, I won't relapse tomorrow. It's more like a domino effect. And I think anyone that's going through anything with addiction or with sobriety in general, it's okay."

"I think if someone told me that it was okay and [if I had] asked for help, I think that's the biggest thing. There's nothing to be ashamed of because your story is not done yet."

"And I always think of life as chapters. It was just another chapter of my life. So now I'm looking forward to the rest."

"I always say I know a few people within cricket or football or whatever, where there is an element of struggling with addiction. And I think once you open yourself up as yourself, being sober, I kind of use it as a platform to say to someone: Hang on, you still have a chance."

"And I think that's what I've always tried to portray. Yes, you might have messed up somewhere, but that doesn't mean that it's the final story. I think if you put in the work, it will always multiply into something great."

"Yes, I think there's a really conscious mindset [now] because sometimes you won't understand why a player is going through such a ditch, but you don't know where that player is."

"And I think it's that, I'm not saying level of grace, but I think one has to step back and be like: Where I'm sitting, I've also struggled with something."

"And I think it's just awareness from everyone around, whether it's spectators, fans, coaches, players, and I think it's always just being vulnerable enough to say: Hang on, I'm struggling here."

"And I think it's just be open because you're helping the next person by you being open."

"Yes, I remember my mom used to be a big fan of Makhaya Ntini, and actually Ntini was the reason I started watching cricket."

"I want to also motivate young kids to take up the sport and I want to be a role model as well as a good individual."

"I would simply say, never give up, there is no shame in failing, but it is important how you pick yourself up after that."

"The person you get on the field is someone who gets on their knees every day. I am not in control of anything. God is always in control."