Epps Quotes & Sayings

Though Article II requires "natural born" citizenship, the Constitution does not explain what the phrase means. There was no constitutional definition of American citizenship until 1868, when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted. Nor was there any existing body of American immigration law to explain it. — Garrett Epps

I don't know why people think I'm this ad-lib dude. — Mike Epps

The new Constitution, however, is brought to us by a Muse, ordained by the authority of the People, and established at the center of our common life. We can read these words as creating a national religion, one at which we still worship. — Garrett Epps

Writing is the beast unto itself. — Omar Epps

You know how Hollywood is: They just follow suit. — Mike Epps

I don't know nothing about no marriages or nothing. I ain't even never been to a wedding. — Mike Epps

The United States Constitution turned 225 years old in 2012. It is the central document of American history and politics. From all sides of the political spectrum, from ranks of society low and high, it is ceaselessly venerated, admired, and invoked. But all too seldom is it read. It sometimes seems that Americans worship the Constitution so deeply that they find its actual text a distraction. — Garrett Epps

'Resident Evil' was different. I like to challenge myself and do different things sometimes. So when it came to me, I was, like, 'Come on with it, I'll do it. — Mike Epps

The world is as it should be. — Omar Epps

I like boxing movies. One of the hardest things for me to watch as far as boxing films, is the boxing. The actual boxing usually sucks. — Omar Epps

You know, you can't make the people do what you want them to do. — Mike Epps

I'm a survivor of life. I try to give the glory to God and appreciate what's happening to me. — Mike Epps

People are realizing that color has no bearing on what's known as brotherhood. — Omar Epps

It's an eclectic film and I think we served the novel really well. And we had a great cast who worked for free. Everyone read it and said, I'm in, from Nick [Nolte] to Albert [Finney] to Omar [Epps] to Barbara [Hershey]. We really had fun and shot it in a very short time. I think the subject matter is more topical today, more to the point, than it was 30 years ago, when it concerned the Vietnam War. — Bruce Willis

I believe success is preparation, because opportunity is going to knock on your door sooner or later but are you prepared to answer that? — Omar Epps

the Gilded Age Senate was in fact more subservient to established interests than the current one. It was during this period that the Senate came to be called "the Millionaire's Club," because industrial and banking magnates, having amassed huge fortunes, often bought themselves Senate seats so they could protect their wealth on the spot. — Garrett Epps

President is a curious term for the American head of state, because "presiding" in any meaningful sense is the one thing the president of the United States does not do. — Garrett Epps

I've never taken myself too seriously. — Omar Epps

I spend 90 percent of my time saying no, and my accountant yells at me for it, but when I started in this business, I wanted my career to have legs. — Omar Epps

The new Constitution will promote the "general" welfare, not welfare varying by condition or by place of residence. It will secure our liberties - against whom? There's an ambiguity here; liberty could be secured against foreign enemies and domestic subversives, or against the new government itself. The latter interpretation is soothing to American ears; but in this context, it seems far-fetched. The clause appears in a list of things government is to do, not things it is not to do; a list of powers, not of prohibitions. The new government, it would appear, is not the enemy of liberty but its chief agent and protector. The purpose then, in its most plausible reading, is to create a strong, active, national government, one whose benefits will flow directly to the people who create it. — Garrett Epps

I'm telling a Richard Pryor story through me. — Mike Epps

Honestly, I feel like I am a leading man, and it's just going to take the right project, the female and the right studio. It's got to all gel together, you know what I mean? — Mike Epps

You want to live your own life, but when you have fame, there are certain things you can't get away with. — Omar Epps

I would love to play Magnum P.I. — Mike Epps

The only way to ensure a film is going to sell is put Will Smith in it and you open it in 3,000 theaters and make sure we have all the top promotional spots in each venue. — Omar Epps

Yeah, I don't mess with chicks younger. They got to be almost thirty. — Mike Epps

I get a lot of people trying to take advantage of me because of my kindness. I'm either real nice to you, or I want to cut your head off. There's no in between with me. — Mike Epps

There's show and there's business. Business is a whole other beat. — Omar Epps

I watch old school film so that I can learn so much that I just sort of miss all the new stuff. — Mike Epps

We were all Romans once, I guess. — Omar Epps

The Gilded Age was much like today; the rich went on a rampage, gutting, by fair means or foul, any institution or principle that protected ordinary people against organized greed. At the end of it, the majority of the American people insisted, against enormous opposition, that the government's powers, structure, and values be modernized to reflect the interests of ordinary people rather than solely those of the wealthy. — Garrett Epps

It is the literal, unvarnished truth, that the crack of the lash, and the shrieking of the slaves, can be heard from dark till bed time, on Epps' plantation, any day almost during the entire period of the cotton-picking season. — Solomon Northup

I believe that every innovative thought comes from a creative mindset ... A creative mindset is what drives our world, and art is the base of that. — Omar Epps

Since 1974, the Right has begun to insist that free speech is a kind of asset, a form of wealth. For that reason, they say, rich people, institutions, and corporations are entitled to dominate national discourse and drown out anyone who has less money. After the Court's 2009 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, this has begun to transform American politics, cementing domination of the process by rich individuals and institutions. — Garrett Epps

The only limitations that I can have are the ones that I set on myself. — Omar Epps

Federal prison, if you get any of it, you're going to have to do 85% of it. And the reason why I called it that is because I had a friend who got sent to the federal joint and his whole ... it wasn't about him being in jail. He cried about the 85%. — Mike Epps

We all take losses and it's about getting up and coming back. — Mike Epps

With Ice Cube they ain't no telling. He might have one cocked and loaded, ready to bust. We might do The Sunday, two old men sitting around the house waiting on the social security check. — Mike Epps

A lot of directors are overbearing and tend to make you doubt your instincts. — Omar Epps

The biggest obstacle I've had to overcome is loving myself 100%. And that's still a battle. I love myself, but sometimes you can be your own worst enemy. And I think I've been my worst enemy in life, because others haven't been able to do anything to me unless I allowed them to do it. — Mike Epps

I'm gonna have to develop myself. I'm just going to do the best that I can do. — Mike Epps

Cedric, man, it's like if I'm working with you, like I'm sitting here now talking to you, I want to get along with you. That's how I am. I feel like if I get along with you, the work will be splendid. — Mike Epps

Every now and then you get a nice Jewish kid who likes black people and they would come in, and it would be a stream of them, and have black friends and really feel the black struggle on the acting tip and it's a reason why all of us are not dying in the movie. — Mike Epps

If someone saves your life, you develop a brotherhood, no matter what your race. — Omar Epps

It's natural for any actor that segues into directing to be an actor's director. You know how to relate to the actors. — Omar Epps

Historical tempers have cooled only slightly after the impeachment of Bill Clinton for lying under oath about a sexual relationship. Many Americans still believe his actions were a threat to the very rule of law; others insist that the "offense" was more low farce than high crime, and that the zeal of Clinton's foes was partisan hypocrisy rather than constitutional passion. — Garrett Epps

They have what you call a black night where they have black people come in for just one night only to watch comedy, and you get all your local drug dealers, thugs, prostitutes, all of them come in, sit down, and listen to you tell jokes. They the hardest people to make laugh. — Mike Epps

To have longevity in this business, you have to reinvent yourself. You can't keep doing the same stuff. Sometimes I've turned down stuff and lost money. — Mike Epps

I learned that you don't have to be all over the place, that you can be subtle and you can say what you say. The words that you put together can be just as hilarious as falling all over the place or doing something. — Mike Epps

That word, fan, has always kind of bothered me. — Omar Epps

You know, my life's changed now. I'm starting to experience what people are really supposed to do. You supposed to be married. You're supposed to have a family, kids, treat your wife right. — Mike Epps

I've been with this young lady for about two years now, and my life changed. I don't even think that way no more. I feel good, too, that I'm changed. Now I feel regular. I feel like I'm supposed to. — Mike Epps

I can remember when I was a baby and my mother was there watching the show. I went and bought 100 episodes and watched them. I respect it so much that the sitcom itself and Ed Norton; I'm not playing Ed Norton but my version of it, cause I'm a black man. — Mike Epps

Everybody that's living in this earth is living in a situation. It's not narrow-minded to the point where everybody is serious and nobody has a personality. I think people die telling jokes. — Mike Epps

I love Richard Pryor. I love him to death. — Mike Epps

May I never forget, on my best day, that I need God as desperately as I did on my worst day — Mike Epps

Soon after he purchased me, Epps asked me if I could write and read, and on being informed that I had received some instruction in those branches of education, he assured me, with emphasis, if he ever caught me with a book, or with pen and ink, he would give me a hundred lashes. — Solomon Northup

People don't want to pay 8 or 9 dollars to go see a problem that they have in their life, on screen. They pay to get away from that. That's why they watch soap operas. — Omar Epps

Nothing in the Tenth Amendment says that the powers must be explicitly, expressly, or specifically given to the federal government - given, that is, in so many words. Also note that the amendment doesn't mention state "sovereignty"; in fact, that idea appears nowhere in the Constitution. Nor does the Tenth Amendment (or the rest of the Constitution) mention "rights" for the states. Finally, there's nothing in it about state "nullification" of federal law. Does the amendment really, in Da Vinci Code fashion, include those ideas? Compare the language of the Articles of Confederation: "Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled. — Garrett Epps

I think in life, the sense of humor and comedy always exists. — Mike Epps

Drawn up and signed by the proper parties, wherein Epps acknowledged he — Solomon Northup

I've been doing comedy and paying my bills. — Mike Epps

Boxing, for me, it's the beginning of all sports. I'm willing to bet that the first sport was a man against another man in a fight, so I think that's something innate in all of us. — Omar Epps

On 'Friday,' I had a big trailer, and we would have a barbecue going and music playing. It was a fun set. There was too much involved for 'The Hangover' to be a fun set. They're trying to get money. — Mike Epps

The whole Miami Heat team is my least my favorite athlete. Why? Because they keep beating my Pacers. — Mike Epps

Just the fact that I'm in the game is great. I'm just blessed to be working. I got a plan, but I'm humble and I try to be humble. — Mike Epps

She didn't break his heart, but I feel like a man is supposed to be a man, he ain't supposed to be all involved in that. That's why she got sisters and friend for. Just show up with the ring and act right. — Mike Epps

But I'm real conscious about what I do. I don't care what the label is. I'm looking at the outcome of it. — Mike Epps

I used to be a dusty little child. — Mike Epps

Whatever art form you're working in, it's crucial to see it clearly, to feel it clearly, and not to worry about the results, or how someone else will see it. — Omar Epps

I'm humble enough to wait and just chill. I'm having fun just working with these good people, man. — Mike Epps

The people's right to alter or abolish their form of government was, to the American revolutionaries, supposedly absolute. Yet, strangely, neither the people nor the states may even begin the process of amending the Constitution until Congress permits. That body "whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary," may propose an amendment or amendments and send them to the states for ratification. — Garrett Epps

Well, I think Hollywood, to be quite honest, I think they've run out of material. — Mike Epps

You would be surprised of films that people just don't see. You know what I mean? I'm always working and I'm a film buff but I'm an old school film buff. — Mike Epps