Top 40 Paul Mooney Quotes

I think about never losing my voice, never giving in, never selling out, always keeping black, always sticking to the street. Staying neighborhood and not Hollywood.

Whatever that thing is that white people like in blacks, I don’t have it. Maybe it’s my arrogance or my self-assurance or the way I carry myself, but whatever it is, I don’t have it.

I’m passionate about what I do. I’d be naive to be passive.

I have nothing to do with racism in America; it was here when I got here.

If you have money and you have fame, but you don’t have any confidence in your blackness, then it’s all for nothing.

I can’t change the past, but one person can change the future – anything can happen.

What does America love more than one white male?

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

I have known Michael Richards for something like 20 years. We’re friends.

I don’t want affirmative action – too much affirmative, not enough action.

Tennessee Williams knew about the South, but he would clean it up and lie about it.

I’m as American as apple pie.

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

When I was 16 or 17, I saw Lenny Bruce being taken to jail. They took him off stage because he talked about race.

America is racial. America was founded on race. Race is America. The code name for America is ‘race.’

Sometimes, what you do you have no control over because it’s predestined. It’s gonna happen in spite of you. There’s nothing you can do about it.

We have a lot of black Anglo-Saxons. Their skin is black, but their brain is white. When I get real mad at them, I call them ‘graham crackers.’

Arizona has always been anti-black.

I’m like the Davy Crockett of comedy… after Davy Crockett opened up the West and helped everybody… they didn’t need him anymore. I freed a lot of comics… if I never would have done comedy, it would’ve been a different art form… I’m sure of it.

I like comedy, I mean, in all forms.

I got my sense of humor from my grandmother. You know, my grandmother was very funny.

People ask me, when was my best time? I always say, ‘Today.’

Robin Williams learned technique. He has the technique of being funny.

Handshaking means, ‘I don’t have a weapon.’

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

My grandmother was the best. She loved you for you. She loved me for me. She was old-school. They broke the mold with her. They don’t make them like that any more.

America has a rap sheet. You can’t police the world and tell the world how to act when you’re just as bad yourself.

An audience can be like a pack of wolves.

There’s always a message in my comedy.

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

I think I have a mental nappy attitude.

I could drop dead tomorrow, the truth will be here. Truth is forever; when you read our history, truth is forever, and it always outs itself.

I read a lot of history. The passive Jews in Germany didn’t survive. The smart ones got out.

Comedians period, in general, have demons, and myself included.

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

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

I am very concerned about Barbara Streisand using the ‘H’ word – ‘honkey.’ That’s what I am concerned about. I am worried about Barbara.

There are still plenty of movie people peddling black stereotypes. I guess Tyler Perry’s probably the most massively successful.

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

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