No individual should rely on any other human being or system to define their worth as a human being. You have to begin to find that within yourself.
Well, in the '80s and '70s, with the exception of Sidney Poitier and Brock Peters, maybe Ivan Dixon, if you were as big and black as I am, you were a bad guy. Simple. Because in real life, I scare people.
I didn't come up in a culture or society that looked on me as a movie star. I was the bad guy. I was fortunate enough to be cast in some roles that weren't bad, were positive.
AIDS is a very, very, very vicious disease, particularly in the black community.
Dreams that are planned are called frustration.
What I really plan to do is take the best scripts I get and consider them seriously. I can actually work as an actor and prepare a film as a director.
I don't want to exclusively direct white films, or black films. I want to have a choice.
I was the first black director on 'Dallas.' I drove my car into the studio lot and the guard asked me who I was delivering to.
Television is a producers' medium. There is a formula with a certain number of closeups for each show.
How can you compare 'Hollywood Shuffle,' financed through the director's credit cards, and 'Apocalypse Now?' You have to take into consideration the conditions under which it was made.
It's very difficult to direct something and do it well. But to direct and act - it's very hard.
Without understanding your history, you can't get a perspective about the present.
I don't say, 'Francis Ford Coppola, what a wonderful Italian-American director.' I judge him based on his film, his craft, his art. That's the way I feel I should be dealt with in this industry.
My parents never let the color of our skin be an excuse for why we did not succeed.
Pain has no color.
My parents taught me that it is my responsibility to make sacrifices for those after me.
My favorite filmmaker is Frank Capra. He talked about the redemption of the human spirit - not the superhero, but the common man.
I meditate twice a day, T.M., and do yoga and tai chi.
I'm a very private person, not much of a party person. That's how I keep my sanity.
The thing about Robin Givens as an actress is that she doesn't back away from anything.
