I’m not really an actor, I’m a reactor; I’m a pitchman. That’s what I do best. Nobody can do it any better.

I say that in the most humble way: I always knew that I could perform with the best of ‚em and I could deliver with the best of ‚em.

I can play a lot of different instruments adequately but nothing really well.

Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?

Rhythm is something you either have or don’t have, but when you have it, you have it all over.

Actors know, with me they aren’t going to be allowed to rehearse a scene for a couple of hours and then get away with doing 25 takes before we get it right. So they come with their full bag of tricks.

I never wanted to stay in one genre; I never wanted to be pigeon-holed or defined as the actor who only worked in one genre. I want to be able to work in all different genres. For me it’s fun, and that’s how I grow as an actor.

The cut of a garment speaks of intellect and talent and the color of temperament and heart.

I’ve written some great things. That’s a gift, but there’s consequences. Yeah, you get this great work, but you suffer. You really, really suffer.

I wanted to be famous for my music and my talent, and I always wished I could cut it out when I left the stage.

I’ve never wanted to use my age as a gimmick, as something that would get me ahead of other people. I’ve wanted the music to do that.

You think I’m going to ask these sweet 14 year olds to ask their parents to buy a $100 ticket then run around in latex and lip sync? No way.

The best work is not what is most difficult for you; it is what you do best.

My role 14 years ago in Richard III – that was the first time I played a bad guy and learned a lot about it – they have all the fun!

I’d like to think I’m a great teacher.

I don’t know what acting is, but I enjoy it.

When you’re in comedy, people always come up and say, ‚Oh, it must be so hard.‘ It really isn’t hard unless you’re not good at it. If you can do it, its really kind of fun and easy.

I think it’s healthy for a person to be nervous. It means you care – that you work hard and want to give a great performance. You just have to channel that nervous energy into the show.

I have, before now, waited for a pen to perform a macro.

I didn’t like the play, but then I saw it under adverse conditions – the curtain was up.

There are people in the world who have skills and strength and talent that I will never have. Never. These notions that you can ‚be whatever you want to be as long as you want it bad enough‘ are not true. They are fairy tales.

Wrestling was like stand-up comedy for me. Every night I had a live audience of 25,000 people to win over. My goal was never to be the loudest or the craziest. It was to be the most entertaining.

Corruption is a cancer: a cancer that eats away at a citizen’s faith in democracy, diminishes the instinct for innovation and creativity; already-tight national budgets, crowding out important national investments. It wastes the talent of entire generations. It scares away investments and jobs.

I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House – with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

People with great gifts are easy to find, but symmetrical and balanced ones never.

When you come to my show, I want it to feel like opera, like a theatre.

How you go about testing is just very different to just being in the situation of qualifying, having to go out, having to nail the lap.

All of my brothers and sisters are very talented. They all sang all right.

The beauty of me being on stage is I have a voice.

I’m trying to do what Eddie Murphy did for his generation. You have to show people, ‚I’m different. I’m not just a comedian.‘ I’m trying to become a rock star.

If you look at me in ‚Ride Along,‘ even though I’m playing two different characters, my demeanor and my tone were not aggressive.

Cause I’m a musician, I’m not really good at posing and being a model, like, modeling.

I take a lot of pride in the work I do, because people pay to see me. They’ve got to get babysitters, park their car, get popcorn and candy. I’ve got to be conscious of that.

The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.

Actor’s life is very long.

Stage actors are usually much more conscious of speaking up and making sure that everyone can hear in the back of the theatre; a film actor probably thinks of that a little less.

My dad was into the 1950s doo-wop era. If you look at those groups, or at James Brown, Jackie Wilson and the Temptations in the 1960s, you’ll see you had to be sharp onstage.

I enjoy acting when you really hit it right.

There is no substitute for talent. Industry and all its virtues are of no avail.

I did stand-up for my grandparents every day when I was, like, eight.

A career is born in public – talent in privacy.

I performed in a bowling alley before while people were still bowling. Cut the check, and I will perform anywhere.

If I’d been born ugly, you’d never have heard of Pele.

I could imagine at a certain age, when I have no vocal cords left, that I would find a young man who could sing my parts for me. But I don’t see why I would stop.

Ability will never catch up with the demand for it.

For me, the way I stay consistent is through stand-up comedy.

An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument.

My main focus is always to do well on the field for the Indian cricket team. When people say good things about me off the field, I am more than happy to accept them.

Bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter’s honor.

I love playing under pressure. In fact, if there’s no pressure, then I’m not in the perfect zone.

My biggest criticism is how can people be so easily satisfied? Even people with talent.

If I haven’t any talent for writing books or newspaper articles, well, then I can always write for myself.

I never intended for the Monster Ball to be a religious experience, it just became one.

I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else.

Aside from singing, I’m also a dancer. I’ve been dancing since I was 8.

I love eating chocolate cake and ice cream after a show. I almost justify it in my mind as, ‚You were a good boy onstage and you did your show, so now you can have some cake and ice cream.‘

I got a fancy reputation. During high school, every puzzle that was known to man must have come to me. Every damn, crazy conundrum that people had invented, I knew.

If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things.

A person who is gifted sees the essential point and leaves the rest as surplus.

A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.