James Earl Jones

In the wintertime, in the snow country, citrus fruit was so rare, and if you got one, it was better than ambrosia.

More and more, when I single out the person out who inspired me most, I go back to my grandfather.

Love was just a word to me. Until you came along and gave it meaning.

The goal wasn't to be a millionaire or to be a Hollywood star. That was not the goal. The goal was something about - the goal was to find the goal, but I knew where it was.

Just so you know, there's a space that only you can fill. Just so you know, I loved you then, I guess I always will.

You sang in church, you know, and you didn't act at all. You tried not to act, you tried to tell the truth. The idea of being a troubadour on the road singing for your supper was very disturbing to him.

There's nothing I would retire for, so I won't retire.

And it was the idea that you can do a play - like a Shakespeare play, or any well-written play, Arthur Miller, whatever - and say things you could never imagine saying, never imagine thinking in your own life.

I love to see actors' work. I love to surf channels late at night and accidentally run into movies I hadn't seen before. It makes me very proud of the profession.

You cannot be an actor like I am and not have been in some of the worst movies like I have. But I stand before you deeply honored, mighty grateful and just plain gobsmacked.

I got out of the Army - in my world - I came to New York, for instance, when the civil rights movement was just beginning, and that created a certain energy, a certain rumble, a certain impetus for black actors.

And I think, on the other end, there were actors who were not as good as I was, perhaps who could have hung in too, but began to blame everything on race.

Speech is a very important aspect of being human. A whisper doesn't cut it.

When I was in New York after I left the Army, I studied for two years at the American Theater Wing, studied acting, which involved dance and fencing and speech classes and history of theater, all that.

There haven't been enough profound things written about what being black means and what a black character is. Nobody knows.

You weren't going to the theatre to change the world, but you had a chance to affect the world, the thinking and the feelings of the world.

I think the extent to which I have any balance at all, any mental balance, is because of being a farm kid and being raised in those isolated rural areas.

When you are mute, you become a good listener - it's all one-way. You appreciate the written word. You appreciate the sound.

Stuttering is painful. In Sunday school, I'd try to read my lessons, and the children behind me were falling on the floor with laughter.

One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter.

No one asked me to be an actor, so no one owed me. There was no entitlement.