Top 25 Billy Dee Williams Quotes

I always admired my father because he was a man that never put on any airs, you know. And I always tried to be that kind of person.

Acting, I started when I was six and a half years-old, on Broadway with Kurt Weill.

For myself, if I’m trying to obtain a certain longevity in my career, to establish myself as a certain kind of star, I don’t want that black exploitation image.

Right before ‘Brian’s Song’ there was a period when I was very despondent, broke, depressed; my first marriage was on the rocks. The role of Gale Sayers had been cast with Lou Gossett, and then he hurt himself playing basketball. I was called in to read for the role. I was their last choice, and I knew it.

The world moves fast, but change isn’t always a good thing when you got it right the first time around.

I am an artist no matter what I do. I live for creativity. I think everyone should. It is the antithesis of being destructive.

I tell my son Corey that the greatest teacher is the teacher who says, ‘Don’t follow me; follow yourself. Because within you there is that kingdom, that life, that force.’

The only thing that said ‘Lando Calrissian’ was ethnic was his looks.

I think of film when I paint. Even the luminosity that I always keep working for is really about film. But my idea is not to paint paintings that will decorate somebody’s house.

No matter where I go, in this country or outside of this country, there are young people, and I’m always surprised that young people know about me and Colt 45.

I want people to see my heart, what I feel – not as one of America’s best black actors but as one of the best actors.

I take very good care of myself, and I’ve still got a lot of things I need and want to do – and I am still cute. Retiring seems like such a remote thing to me. The whole idea of it.

You are always going to have people criticizing, in one way or another, for their own personal reason.

If anything, I’ve seen myself as the full spectrum of colors, and to be faced with not being able to do something just because I’m of a particular race has been something that I’ve always found very difficult – even today.

I don’t know why everybody thinks I’m smooth. I think I’m just a pretty silly person, really.

I think I’ve been very fortunate, considering the obstacles that I had to deal with, you know, just being – by virtue of being a brown, lovely, brown-skinned man. But on the other hand, I’ve been able to make a good living, and I’ve been able to take care of my family, which is most important to me.

I loved Marlon Brando: my favorite actor.

Power is a very peculiar thing. It’s like the ego. The ego’s only there to keep you above water. Once we realize something good about ourselves, we have a tendency to abuse the gift.

Failure’s not a bad thing. It builds character. It makes you stronger.

My idea is to paint paintings so that when you walk into a room, I’m pulling you in, or that makes you suddenly stop and wonder: ‘What is this? There is something groovy, something else going on here.’ Also, I want to give you what is obvious and what is not obvious to the eye.

I did something that no brown-skinned man in the movie industry ever did. I made a brown-skinned man look very romantic – a matinee idol. If you think about it, what I introduced is historical because it had never happened before, and it hasn’t happened since – not on that level.

It was a time after ‘Lady Sings the Blues’ and ‘Mahogany’ and all those romantic movies: I became this romantic figure on the street in a very special way.

I go, and I do my work, and I try to do the best I can, and I collect my money, and I go home, and then I go on to the next thing. That’s my attitude.

I don’t want to sound too carried away, but from what I’ve seen, ‘Bingo Long’ is going to be a big one. A classic.

Sometimes a true original doesn’t need to change a thing.