Quotes from Malcolm-Jamal Warner

I've been writing all my life, and playing bass came later on, when I was about 26. What I recognized with poetry and music that I had a different voice - there were things I wanted to express that I could not as an actor or even as a director. It was another avenue of expression that my soul needs.

When I'm not working, I'm on the road with my band. Or I'm performing in poetry houses doing spoken work. So I've got another passion and another outlet that allows me to be creatively fulfilled and not sitting at home pulling my hair out waiting for the right role to come along.

Mr. Cosby wanted to do a show not about an upper-middle-class black family, but an upper-middle-class family that happened to be black. Though it sounds like semantics, they're very different approaches.

I've met men who have been married 19, 20 years, and all of a sudden the wife decides one day she needs to find herself.

My perspective was always being on a number one show doesn't mean anything if I'm not still working consistently at 40 to 50 and 60 years old.

I planned so well for my post-'Cosby Show' life that I don't have to make desperate acting choices that conflict with what my values.

Theater is my favorite platform. Television is my favorite paycheck. The more television I can do, the more theater I can do.

I never wanted to look back on my career and be embarrassed about work that I chose to do. I never wanted to look at character I've done and cringe.

When we've had images that perpetuate the negative stereotype of people of color, we've always had 'The Cosby Show' to hold up against that. And the fact that we no longer have that kinda leaves us not in a great place in terms of having the wide scope of the images of people of color.

It's hard not to look at the road of the media and how the media is a big part of painting a picture for public opinion.

Theater is such its own living, breathing animal. You do a show every night, but it's different every night. Being on stage, you're experiencing a journey.

Since the beginning of establishment, poets and spoken word artists have always been both vocal supporters and critics of government. And in this age of Trump as President, alternative facts, falsehoods becoming truth at the send of a tweet, it's vital that spoken word poetry does its job helping to keep folks 'woke' and not numb or shut down.

I've always been a poet. My dad went to Lincoln University with Gil-Scott Heron, so I came out of the womb listening to Gil-Scott Heron.

I think one of the greatest advantages we had on the show growing up was being exposed to Mr. Cosby - being exposed to his work ethic, being exposed to how he handles the job of celebrity and living in the public eye... I think that all had a real significant impact.

Though my music audience is cross-generational, like my television audience, my core demographic is people like myself. People who have grown up on hip-hop, but hip-hop doesn't necessarily speak to us any longer.

Acting had been a hobby that turned into a career, the directing was a hobby that turned into a career and music just really allowed me to find another way to express myself.

The beautiful thing about theater is every night is an opportunity to incorporate what you discovered the night before.

I used to say that it won't be until I'm 40, 50, 60 years old, still working consistently, will I be able to look back on my career and say, 'Wow, I have been successful.'

Our differences - in race, sexual preference, economic - have always been used as distractions to keep us divided. We get so wrapped up in our own stories that we can't hear each other.

But there's a huge blessing that comes from being a part of a show like 'The Cosby Show' that sets such a high standard of quality - it touched so many people on so many different levels.

I was definitely acutely aware, the transition of being seen as a child actor to being taken seriously as an adult actor. It's not always a smooth one.

Being a celebrity can be very intoxicating and very addicting. And I've always been afraid of that, because I've grown up post-almost every child star out there who has gone wayward.

The Bill Cosby I know has been great to me and great for a lot of people. What he's done for comedy and television has been legendary and history-making. What he's done for the black community and education has been invaluable. That's the Bill Cosby I know.

When I was hanging out with Joey Clements in Chicago, I made it a point not to try to emulate him. I wanted basically to create my own character. I didn't want him to think I was hanging out with him solely to use him as research.