Quotes from Charlie Murphy

As far as stand-up comedy, I got into the business later than most, yeah.

There's no one on the road that I tried to pattern myself after. There's no one in history that I tried to pattern myself after. Because one thing I was told that in standup you want to develop your own voice.

Before I started doing standup, I knew that I had what it takes to develop an act. I went down to clubs with not many people there, and I just worked on it, man. A lot of my friends are comedians, so that part had a lot of encouragement, even though the shows were very caveman-like.

There's a lot of racism when I was in the Navy, and I had to deal with that.

In the Navy, you're around a lot of people from different parts of the country. They've got different accents, different upbringings. I learned to love country-western music.

If the 'Chappelle's Show' had stayed on, I seriously doubt I would have developed this fast as a stand-up comedian. I probably would never have taken stand-up comedy really seriously.

I don't think there's a person in the industry that wouldn't love to work with Dave Chappelle. That's a no-brainer.

I bombed in front of 5,000 people. Anybody that's ever stood in front of 5,000 people that don't like them can tell you, it's an energy associated with that. You don't want to feel that. You ask yourself, 'Do you really really want to do this?'

I don't like to go to regular, big stores - I don't like to wear anything anybody else does.

What I'm pretty much giving you when you see me onstage is me; it's not a fake character.

There are many styles of standup, but the comedians I like are people like Dick Gregory and Richard Pryor. Because Richard Pryor told the truth. Chris Rock. I love Chris Rock. He's funny, but he's also poignant. He's not there just to make people laugh; he's there to make people wake up, too.

When you don't have money, you fall under the influence of anybody who has the appearance of having it.

I'm an entertainer, period. I can write it, I can speak it, and I can act it.

I never went around saying who my brother was. Everybody else was doing that.

My whole life is a funny moment, man.