There is but one stage for the peasant and the actor.

I have some good friends of my own who happen to be gay, and when it comes to gay, straight, or whatever, I’m for anything life-affirmative. I’m for gay power, straight power, male power, female power; everybody should feel empowered without oppressing anyone who’s different.

‚Whole Women’s Health‘ made it very clear that poor women were no longer going to be left out.

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

It’s a fundamental, social attitude that the 1% supports symphonies and operas and doesn’t support Johnny learning to program hip-hop beats. When I put it like that, it sounds like, ‚Well, yeah,‘ but you start to think, ‚Why not, though?‘ What makes one more valuable than another?

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.

I can’t make a song for a particular person or demographic. If I love it, I’m gonna do it. I have to perform it for the rest of my life. A song is like a tattoo – you can never get away from it.

My aim is to make the poor look rich and the rich look poor.

I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one ‚race‘ – the human race – and that we are all members of it.

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.

For goodness sake, will they hear, will white people hear what we are trying to say? Please, all we are asking you to do is to recognize that we are humans, too.

Isn’t it amazing that we are all made in God’s image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people?

I’ve done auditions where the casting director is taking the paper out of my hand in the middle of reading.

The battle for the individual rights of women is one of long standing and none of us should countenance anything which undermines it.

Acting is nothing more or less than playing. The idea is to humanize life.

People think hard sparring will get you sharp. And you do get sharp in the gym. But anytime I’ve trained that way, I’ve actually been a little bit flatter in the fight. And the knockout shot hasn’t come. It’s almost because my training has been too hard.

Gays are some of the nicest, kindest, most loving people in the world.

I never wanted to weigh more heavily on a man than a bird.

We reached a high point in my opinion with the passage of the civil rights legislation and Martin Luther King’s success and the crusade of others. I think we kind of breathed a sigh of relief as if we had achieved the end of racial discrimination or white supremacy.

I want to be an Asian Robert De Niro.

Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

What I believe is that marriage is between a man and a woman, but what I also believe is that we have an obligation to make sure that gays and lesbians have the rights of citizenship that afford them visitations to hospitals, that allow them to be, to transfer property between partners, to make certain that they’re not discriminated on the job.

My strong point, if I have a strong point, is performance. I always do more than I say. I always produce more than I promise.

Any artist, the work you do, if it’s a painting or if it’s a performance, you hope it translates to a common denominator with the people that they see something in their own life in there. Or they see something in somebody else’s life. That’s what’s fun about sharing art.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

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

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.

The art of acting consists in keeping people from coughing.

You want me to own a team and deal with these rich, spoiled stubborn athletes, and try to get them to perform? No thank you.

One child must never be set above another, even in casual conversation, not to mention in speeches that circle the globe.

Stupid as a man, say the women: cowardly as a woman, say the men. Stupidity in a woman is unwomanly.

To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.

I’m not actually a very keen performer. I like putting shows together. I like putting events together. In fact, everything I do is about the conceptualizing and realization of a piece of work, whether it’s the recording or the performance side.

I don’t even call them fans. I don’t like that. They’re literally just a part of my life; they’re a part of my family. I don’t think of them as on a lower level than me. I don’t think I’m anything but equal to all of them. So yeah, they’re basically all of my siblings.

When I was a child I asked my mother what homosexuality was about and she said – and this was 100 years ago in Germany and she was very open-minded – ‚It’s like hair color. It’s nothing. Some people are blond and some people have dark hair. It’s not a subject.‘ This was a very healthy attitude.

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

Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.

An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument.

The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.

An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument. Isaac Stern takes good care of his violin. What if everybody jumped on his violin?

It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

I got started as an actor when I was 12.

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.

I know I got it made while the masses of black people are catchin‘ hell, but as long as they ain’t free, I ain’t free.

There are very few people who really appreciate my shows. People come to the show and they pay and they enjoy it, but I don’t really think most people really understand what they’ve seen.

You gotta understand: I believe a woman should praise the man, the king. If you holding it down for your woman, I feel like the woman should praise. And the man should praise the queen.

On the field, aggression can sometimes be a positive emotion. It boosts performance and can lift your game. But over the years, I have learnt that restrained aggression is a better animal. That way, you will conserve your energy and won’t spend yourself quickly.

Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.

I should like to know if, taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle, you begin making exceptions to it, where will you stop? If one man says it does not mean a Negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man?

I realized quickly what Mandela and Tambo meant to ordinary Africans. It was a place where they could come and find a sympathetic ear and a competent ally, a place where they would not be either turned away or cheated, a place where they might actually feel proud to be represented by men of their own skin color.

There will be gay couples; it will exist. It is not very nice that people who are married – who divorce in three seconds – don’t want protection for the others. The legal system should protect everyone, not just the few people who think they are above everybody else because they are married.

I’m not in favour of dividing Hindus and Sikhs. I’m not in favour of dividing Hindus and Christians. All the citizens, all the voters, are my countrymen.

Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.

God tells us not to judge one another, no matter what anyone’s sexual preferences are or if they’re black, brown or purple.

Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.

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

I’ve never thought about any kind of prejudice about women in country music because I never felt like it affected me. I was fortunate enough to come about in a time when I didn’t feel that kind of energy at all, and it was always my theory that if you want to play in the same ballgame as the boys, you’ve got to work as hard as them.

The media need superheroes in science just as in every sphere of life, but there is really a continuous range of abilities with no clear dividing line.

A person’s a person, no matter how small.

A strong man doesn’t have to be dominant toward a woman. He doesn’t match his strength against a woman weak with love for him. He matches it against the world.

I was honoured when they asked me to appear at the president’s birthday rally in Madison Square Garden. There was like a hush over the whole place when I came on to sing ‚Happy Birthday,‘ like if I had been wearing a slip, I would have thought it was showing or something. I thought, ‚Oh, my gosh, what if no sound comes out!‘