Quotes from Paul Mooney

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

An audience can be like a pack of wolves.

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.

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

A woman can tell me about her having a baby, but I'll never know what it is to have a baby.

I am very concerned about Barbara Streisand using the 'H' word - 'honkey.' That's what I am concerned about. I am worried about Barbara.

What does America love more than one white male?

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

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.

People don't want to hear the truth, they never do. They wanna live in some kind of fantasy. And then when they get caught up in it, they start being in denial because they don't want to be wrong.

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

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.

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.

There's always a message in my comedy.

I've never seen anyone more messed up over success than Richard Pryor. For him, it's a constant battle between success in the white world and keeping it real for his black self.

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

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.

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

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.

When you watch TV, I didn't know black people were that happy. I had no idea they were that happy. I'm trying to find them.

You know who you are. If my mother is a nun and someone comes up to me and they go, 'Your mother is a prostitute.' It is not going to bother me, because I know my mother is a nun, she's not a prostitute.

I think I have a mental nappy attitude.

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.

Listen, we've got one little ol' black president, and white folks are upset, but they've had 43.