Sidney Poitier

My father was a certain kind of man - I saw how he treated my mother and his family and how he treated strangers. And I vowed I would never make a film that would not reflect properly on my father's name.

My father was the quintessential husband and dad.

I wanted to explore the values that are at work, underpinning my life.

We suffer pain, we hang tight to hope, we nurture expectations, we are plagued occasionally by fears, we are haunted by defeats and unrealized hopes . . . The hoplessness of which I speak is not limited.

We're all imperfect, and life is simply a perpetual, unending struggle against those imperfections.

I was the only Black person on the set. It was unusual for me to be in a circumstance in which every move I made was tantamount to representation of 18 million people.

Okay listen, you think I'm so inconsequential? Then try this on for size. All those who see unworthiness when they look at me and are given thereby to denying me value - to you I say, I'm not talking about being AS GOOD as you. I hereby declare myself BETTER than you.

To simply wake up every morning a better person than when I went to bed.

Mine was an easy ride compared to Jackie Robinson's.

I've learned that I must find positive outlets for anger or it will destroy me. There is a certain anger: it reaches such intensity that to express it fully would require homicidal rage--self destructive, destroy the world rage--and its flame burns because the world is so unjust. I have to try to find a way to channel that anger to the positive, and the highest positive is forgiveness.

Since I couldn't actuate the things that I wanted to do, the only weapon I had was to say no.

I was a gift to my mother. She was a remarkable person. God or nature, or whatever those forces are, smiled on her, then passed me the best of her.

Living _x000D_ consciously involves being genuine; it involves listening and _x000D_ responding to others honestly and openly; it involves being in the _x000D_ moment.

Generally, I tend to despise human behavior rather than human creatures.

The impact of the black audience is expressing itself. They look to films to be more expressive of their needs, their lives. Hollywood has gotten that message - finally.

I always wanted to be someone better the next day than I was the day before.

As I entered this world, I would leave behind the nurturing of my family and my home, but in another sense I would take their protection with me. The lessons I had learned, the feelings of groundedness and belonging that have been woven into my character there, would be my companions on the journey.

I never had an occasion to question color, therefore, I only saw myself as what I was... a human being.

So I had to be careful. I recognized the responsibility that, whether I liked it or not, I had to accept whatever the obligation was. That was to behave in a manner, to carry myself in such a professional way, as if there ever is a reflection, it's a positive one.

If you apologize because you are afraid, then you are a child not a man.

I decided in my life that I would do nothing that did not reflect positively on my father's life.