Quotes from James Earl Jones

There is not enough magic in a bloodline to forge an instant, irrevocable bond.

When you are mute, you become a good listener - it's all one-way. You appreciate the written word. You appreciate the sound.

More and more, when I single out the person out who inspired me most, I go back to my grandfather.

My youngest uncle Randy and I were the first members of our entire family to ever go to college.

One day, my youngest uncle - the other one who was first to go to college, Randy - and I were sitting out on the front porch. And he was brilliant. He ended up - he just retired from Boeing Aircraft in Wichita, Kansas.

I was an adopted child of my grandparents, and I don't know how I can ever express my gratitude for that, because my parents would have been a mess, you know.

The goal wasn't to be a millionaire or to be a Hollywood star. That was not the goal. The goal was something about - the goal was to find the goal, but I knew where it was.

I do not know if it is true that all actors want to direct and all directors want to act, but in 1972 I tried directing and decided I had better stick to acting.

So in my sophomore year, I took a senior anatomy class. I thought anatomy - being the thing that I should be most interested in - and if I could hack, as we called it, a senior class, I would continue. I didn't hack the senior class.

It has to be real, and I think a lot of the problems we have as a society is because we don't acknowledge that family is important, and it has to be people who are present, you know, and mothers and fathers, both are not present enough with children.

I got out of the Army - in my world - I came to New York, for instance, when the civil rights movement was just beginning, and that created a certain energy, a certain rumble, a certain impetus for black actors.

One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter.

If you live in an oppressive society, you've got to be resilient. You can't let each little thing crush you. You have take every encounter and make yourself larger, rather than allow yourself to be diminished by it.

You don't build a bond without being present.

Just so you know, there's a space that only you can fill. Just so you know, I loved you then, I guess I always will.

When I read great literature, great drama, speeches, or sermons, I feel that the human mind has not achieved anything greater than the ability to share feelings and thoughts through language.

The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns, we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they will win and the decent people will lose.

My grandmother though, began to prepare in her own neurotic - and I think psychotic - way to face racism. So she taught us to be racist, which is something I had to undo later when I got to Michigan, you know.

Writing can give full meaning to characters and avoid pure stereotype.

I consider myself a novice film actor.

Reading was a big thing, yes. Books were a big thing. But the things that stick out were the newspapers.

I love to see actors' work. I love to surf channels late at night and accidentally run into movies I hadn't seen before. It makes me very proud of the profession.

You weren't going to the theatre to change the world, but you had a chance to affect the world, the thinking and the feelings of the world.

We children learned responsibility automatically.