Sidney Poitier's Quotes

There is not racial or ethnic domination of hopelessness. It's everywhere.

To be compared to Jackie Robinson is an enormous compliment, but I don't think it's necessarily deserved.

When I set out to become an actor, I had set myself a standard.

I lived in a country where I couldn't live where I wanted to live. I lived in a country where I couldn't go where I wanted to eat. I lived in a country where I couldn't get a job, except for those put aside for people of my colour or caste.

I knew what it was to be uncomfortable in a movie theater watching unfolding on the screen images of myself - not me, but black people - that were uncomfortable.

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.

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.

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

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

I know how easy it is for one to stay well within moral, ethical, and legal bounds through the skillful use of words - and to thereby spin, sidestep, circumvent, or bend a truth completely out of shape. To that extent, we are all liars on numerous occasions.

So it's been kind of a long road, but it was a good journey altogether.

I couldn't adjust to the racism in Florida.

So I'm OK with myself, with history, my work, who I am and who I was.

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

I was born two months early, and everyone had given up on me. But my mother insisted on my life.

I had chosen to use my work as a reflection of my values.

So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness.

I come from a great family. I've seen family life and I know how wonderful, how nurturing, and how wonderful it can be.

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

I cannot be understood in three minutes.

I wouldn't change a single thing, because one change alters every moment that follows it.

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

A good deed here, a good deed there, a good thought here, a good comment there, all added up to my career in one way or another.

As a man, I've been representative of the values I hold dear. And the values I hold dear are carryovers from the lives of my parents.

But my dad also was a remarkable man, a good person, a principled individual, a man of integrity.

I have always been a learner because I knew nothing.

But I always had the ability to say no. That's how I called my own shots.

My autobiography was simply the story of my life.

We all suffer from the preoccupation that there exists... in the loved one, perfection.

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

The journey has been incredible from its beginning.