Quotes from Tyler Perry

energy, all your hopes—into a dream, then meeting the hard knocks of failure over and over again, falling down and getting up…having to push yourself up to rise and try again for seven long years.

payment and money that should have gone to my apartment, and rented the 14th Street Playhouse in downtown Atlanta. I hired actors, built scenery, and rented props. I did the whole nine yards on my own, spending all I had to my name.

The theater had seating for two hundred people. You know how many seats were filled on opening night? Thirty. That's right. Thirty. When I looked out and saw all that emptiness, my heart sank to the bottom. I was so naïve, assuming people would just show up. On top of that, I'd booked the theater for Fourth of July weekend. I had a lot

to learn. For one thing, who goes to a play on the Fourth of July? People are barbecuing and watching fireworks. Also, I was a total unknown. No one had heard of Tyler Perry, no one knew about my play. Why would they come?

Every year for five years I spent every cent I had on I Know I've Been Changed, putting it on in different cities and in different theaters. Every single show—every one—failed. The financial failure and the heartbreak tore at my faith. Yet something kept the dream alive in my mind and in my heart and so I kept going, kept hoping, until finally, in 1998, I'd

I tell you when it's over. You don't tell me when it's over. Now get up again and look out the window.

After that outcry, all emotion was drained from me. I sat down defeated and started applying the makeup to play Old Man Joe, a character I created long before Madea. Suddenly, I heard God's voice, the one I've

I agreed to do it, but the night the show was opening, March 12, 1998, was the coldest

night I'd ever felt in Atlanta. And the heat was out in the theater. I was sitting in the dressing room, angry, frustrated, and feeling empty and hopeless. I was so agitated with disappointment that I couldn't sit still. I stood up and started pacing back and forth and speaking out loud to God. "You bring me out to these moments and you never see me through. What's going on?

A couple of weeks later, the play was produced at the Fox Theatre, with more than 4,500 seats, and it sold out—two shows.

Every national promoter I had spoken with during the past seven years, every one who had turned me down, now had offers in hand to take me on tour. Before long I was playing arenas with 20,000 seats and filling every one of them.

I was able to forgive Emmitt, that the fuel firing me was no longer anger but love and compassion. That's when my life really turned around. Once that happened, I met true success.

You might say I was jogging through paradise. Running opened the door to my senses, and I was able to take it all in. I felt my breath moving like a miracle

I believe that everything that happens to you can work together for your good because I believe everything you deal with in this life is all for a reason and is supposed to make you a better person.

through my body. I'd be clearheaded, in tune with nature, grateful, close to God.

And then… I stopped running. Why do we stop doing the very things that nurture us physically and emotionally, and feed our spiritual growth? It's a big question, one always worth contemplating. At this particular time, I stopped running because I was drawn so fully into my work that my focus narrowed and I shut out some of the things that truly mattered most. The desire to achieve in my career became all-consuming, and for a while, I lost my sense of balance

One day, after yet another failed running attempt, I confessed to a good friend how frustrated I was about my sorry running chops. "Tyler, you've got it all wrong," he said. "It's not about the speed or the distance. It's about the endurance." I rolled his words around my mind and remembered Ecclesiastes 9:11 (KJV):

Focus on one step at a time. Be grateful for how far you've come. Thank God for where you are. Keep going.

Emmitt's cruel actions, his impatience, disrespect, uncontrollable anger, and violence, taught me all the ways I didn't want to be like him. My father stomped through our house, shooting his ugly, bone-chilling stare in my direction and sneering, "There's that little son of a bitch. Look at that jackass.

In direct opposition to how my father raised me, with my own son I focus on being a parent who is tender and loving, attentive, curious, supportive, patient, and aware. I'm not a perfect soul, but I strive to keep my heart open and loving. I've sworn never to utter an unkind word to my son, Aman.

With this thought resonating, I realized that we all have gifts within, but they're too often hidden. We have gifts we have never used, even though they are within reach. If we only knew where to look, we would find them. These gifts are special. They might even change our lives and help make the world a better place. We all have gifts given to us by God.

Everything that happens to you in this life, if you conquer it, if you beat it, you've won. Embrace every day you get.

I haven't read a book in a very, very long time because, when I'm writing, I don't like to see other people's work. I don't want to see something great and not be able to use it, and I don't want to have any subconscious influences.

You can,t make yourself happy by causing other peoples misery -Tyler Perry The Family That Preys