James Earl Quotes & Sayings

In our resolve to build a better world ... we seek to summon what Abraham Lincoln called the better angels of our nature. — James Earl Jones

I think self-criticism is sort of a given when you're an actor. It's also about being curious and not being flippant. Anyone who accepts being in this noble profession is automatically self-critical. — James Earl Jones

I think stutterers are funny. And I know it's rude and politically incorrect to laugh at stutterers. But I think it is okay because I know why they're funny. They make people nervous. People think, when on earth are they going to get the word out, so they start laughing out of their own nervousness. — James Earl Jones

My very first role was with James Earl Jones on 'Gabriel's Fire' on TV. He drove a Chevy Citation, which is the exact same car that I bought from a guy in San Francisco called Sandy Boone. I showed up on set, and James Earl Jones was driving the car I had bought from Sandy for $250. — Leland Orser

From the Earl of Hellgate's Memoirs, Chapter the Twenty-Sixth
I realized then that I had mistaken the nature of love. Love has nothing to do with desire; it's the quest for the divine, found on earth. It's finding a woman whose soul preserves a shard of heaven, and worshipping her ... worshipping at her feet. I was a new man. — Eloisa James

For a moment she could have sworn she was standing in one of those history-comes-alive museums
the kind that feature animatronic robots, the narration stylings of James Earl Jones, and the sort of exhibits that invade children's nightmares for years to come. But instead of a cyborgish John Wilkes Booth discharging his deadly bullet into the back of a plastic Lincoln's head, a very real version of the assassin was engaged in a furious arm-wrestling match with Elvis Presley.
Lincoln was watching the tussle, amused. "Come on, John," he said. "You can do better than that."
"He's all talk," Elvis whispered back.
"Silence!" roared Booth. "I'm trying to concentrate!"
Lincoln rolled his eyes. — Gina Damico

The opportunity to carry water every night to James Earl Jones on stage is a dream come true. — John Larroquette

I am James Burlough, the Earl of Deerhurst.' The earl's pleasant smile capsized into not-quite-polite puzzlement. 'And who might you be, sir? — Suzanne Enoch

Republicans are just rich, old, white people - that's all they are. You ever see the Republican National Convention? All white people - six black people: paid actors. James Earl Jones in his most difficult, challenging role! Tune in and attempt to watch him look pleased during a George Bush speech. And Clarence Thomas - as himself. — Andy Kindler

The trial of hapless Timothy McVeigh shared many things in common
with the "trials" of other scapegoats from the past. Like Bruno Richard
Hauptmann, James Earl Ray, and Sirhan Sirhan, McVeigh received inept
legal representation. Stephen Jones presented almost no defense, resting
after only three and a half days and just twenty-five witnesses. Even
establishment talking head attorney Alan Dershowitz would criticize the
incompetent defense McVeigh received. — Donald Jeffries

I found my voice in books ... — James Earl Jones

You don't build a bond without being present. — James Earl Jones

So by the time I got to Michigan I was a stutterer. I couldn't talk. So my first year of school was my first mute year and then those mute years continued until I got to high school. — James Earl Jones

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. — James Earl Jones

A man's got to take care of his family. You live in my house, you sleep your behind on my bedclothes, you put my food in your belly because you are my son; you are my flesh and blood, not because I like you. It is my duty to take care of you. I owe a responsibility to you. — James Earl Jones

Denzel Washington, Sidney Poitier, Robert Redford, Tom Cruise: those guys have well-planned careers. I'm just on a journey. Wherever I run across a job, I say, 'Okay, I'll do that.' — James Earl Jones

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

Don't you try and go through life worried if someone had liked you or not. You best make sure that they are doing right by you. — James Earl Jones

So I was determined to use my last two years in college doing something I thought I would enjoy, which was acting. And it was probably because there was girls over in the drama school too, you know? — James Earl Jones

since I know for a fact that her class had been in the physics labs when Mr. Fibs got attacked by the bees he thought he'd genetically modified to obey commands from a whistle. (Turns out they only respond to the voice of James Earl Jones.) — Ally Carter

My voice dropped when I was 14. And when I was 14, I might have weighed 75 pounds. So you can imagine how strange that must have been: like James Earl Jones speaking through a sock puppet. — Benjamin Percy

The arts have always been an important ingredient to the health of a nation, but we haven't gotten there yet. — James Earl Jones

The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns, we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they will win and the decent people will loose. — James Earl Jones

When I read great literature, great drama, speeches, or sermons, I feel that the human mind has not achieved anything greater than the ability to share feelings and thoughts through language. — James Earl Jones

Love is just love, it can never be explained. — James Earl Jones

Once you begin to explain or excuse all events on racial grounds, you begin to indulge in the perilous mythology of race. — James Earl Jones

I have an occasionally recurring stutter, but not when in character on stage in a play. Odd. James Earl Jones has the same pattern; he stutters in everyday life but not when acting. Preparation requires an actor's concentration to make the words belong to another person, which is its own sort of trance. — John Casey

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. — James Earl Jones

I was as content Off-Broadway as I was in a big Hollywood movie, and, I just try to be content wherever I am, you know. — James Earl Jones

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

We used to be "shiftless and lazy," now we're "fearsome and awesome." I think the black man should take pride in that. — James Earl Jones

Acting is not about anything romantic, not even fantasy, although you do create fantasy. — James Earl Jones

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

My voice is for hire. My endorsement is not for hire. I will do a voice-over, but I cannot endorse without making a different kind of commitment. My politics are very personal and subjective. — James Earl Jones

I agree with my father, Albert Einstein, don't believe every quote you read on the internet. — James Earl Jones

The teacher took two long strides and stood beside Parker's desk. Before the boy could speak, Mr. Earl threw the desktop open. For a second, he stared into it. A white glow reflected off his face.
"What is this?" he said, as he reached toward the brightness.
"Careful, Mr. Earl," Parker started to say, but it was too late.
The teacher screeched before lurching against the desk. He went down quickly, his feet vanishing into the desk last. — James Van Pelt

The last thing I want to be is a rich black superstar. I just want to act. — James Earl Jones

My youngest uncle Randy and I were the first members of our entire family to ever go to college. — James Earl Jones

At that moment, Robert saw James Stewart turn to him. A jolt went through him as the steward nodded. Before anyone could begin speaking again, he headed out of the crowd towards Wallace, leaving his men looking on in surprise.
'We have chosen to elect this man as our guardian.' Robert's voice was harsh as he gestured to Wallace. 'But he is still just the son of a knight.'
'You dare to challenge his election?' demanded Adam. Other shouts of scorn and ire joined his.
'On the contrary,' answered Robert, 'I am suggesting that a man of William Wallace's achievements, a man who is to be sole guardian of Scotland, bears a title befitting his prowess.' He faced the crowd. 'I, Sir Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, offer William Wallace the honour of a knighthood.' He turned to Wallace. 'If he will bend before me. — Robyn Young

Emmitt Smith is a great running back. One of the things I like about him along with Edgerrin James is that neither one of them 'show out' when they run a touchdown. — Earl Campbell

The movie I've seen a million times - wait, that's not possible - my favorite movie of all times is 'The Empire Strikes Back,' directed by Irvin Kershner, executive-produced by the great George Lucas and stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones. — Donald Faison

I love doing commercials! Usually, they have enough money that they can take time and photograph it well. — James Earl Jones

There was all this talk when Obama got elected about how we were living in a postracial world. But we're not. Until we get to the point where James Earl Jones can play, say, George Washington, race matters. You wouldn't put a white actor in blackface to play Othello. You shouldn't have a white actor in what amounts to yellowface to play Asian. — David Henry Hwang

Before my grandpa built his own church, we went to the neighboring town, and it was a white community. You know, up north, mostly middle European people and Indians, Chippewa Indians. We were welcome to that church, but once we got in, they didn't know what to do with us. — James Earl Jones

Listening back to your speaking voice for the first time, unless you're James Earl Jones, it's a quite distressing process for most people. — Philip Selway

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. — James Earl Jones

And nothing embittered me, which is important, because I think ethnic people and women in this society can end up being embittered because of the lack of affirmative action, you know. — James Earl Jones

You weren't going to the theater to change the world, but you had a chance to affect the world, the thinking and the feelings of the world. — James Earl Jones

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. — James Earl Jones

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

Othello is about many different kinds of love: it's about the light, beautiful side of love, and it's about the twisted, darker side of love, and it's about how, if you flip the emotional coin, love can make you do terrible things. (James Earl Jones) — Susannah Carson

This is right. You know it is." His other hand touched her cheek and curved around the back of her head. "Pennhyll wants you. The Black Earl wants you. I want you. And I will not dishonor you by offering you anything less than my name. I don't give a damn how many times I've made love to you in my head, I want you in life, undisputably and without the Black Earl standing around. When next we make love, Olivia, you will be my wife, and James must find a way to overcome his disappointment."
-Sebastian to Olivia — Carolyn Jewel

I was an adopted child of my grandparents, and I don't know how I can ever express my gratitude for that, because my parents would have been a mess, you know. — James Earl Jones

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. — James Earl Jones

I really think I ambled through a lot of my life, or ambled from one thing to the other. — James Earl Jones

William James said: "The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. We need only in cold blood act as if the thing in question were real, and it will become infallibly real by growing into such a connection with our life that it will become real. It will become so knit with habit and emotion that our interests in it will be those which characterize belief." He also said,"If you only care enough for a result, you will almost certainly attain it. If you wish to be rich, you will be rich. If you wish to be learned, you will be learned. If you wish to be good, you will be good - only you must, then, really wish these things, and wish them exclusively, and not wish at the same time a hundred other incompatible things just as strongly. — Earl Nightingale

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. — James Earl Jones

I'd like to film a British commercial; they're better than American ones. — James Earl Jones

There's nothing I would retire for, so I won't retire. — James Earl Jones

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. — James Earl Jones

My grandmother had the most dramatic effect on my life because she set me in one direction, and I had to go back the other direction for my sanity, and for my ability to be a social human being. — James Earl Jones

The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good, and what could be again. — James Earl Jones

I was preparing myself for the theater, and ... I got a little job here and a job there, but it wasn't going well, and I considered some time before the mid-60s that maybe I should consider something else. — James Earl Jones

We children learned responsibility automatically. — James Earl Jones

One person I've always wanted to work with who would be an amazing guest star would be James Earl Jones. — Nancy McKeon

I happened to happened to land in a time, in the middle '60s, that without knowing it, and without being told by the history of theater - which we now see from a historical point of view was an explosive time. — James Earl Jones

Writing can give full meaning to characters and avoid pure stereotype. — James Earl Jones

I've always thought hard-boiled detective novels an American art form. At their best, they're more than who-dun-its or thrillers, they're vehicles for a writer's observations about culture, politics, philosophy, music, history and a time or a place. Or life, it's ownself. When you read James Ellroy, Dashiell Hammett or James Lee Burke, their stories are always about far more than good guys chasing bad guys. That's the kind of book I wanted to write. Still do. — Jim Nesbitt

The inclusiveness of the Drama League luncheon is one of the most exciting things about it. I get to see old friends and meet new friends. Of course I can't tell who anybody is if they're under the age of 75. So my old friends become my new friends. — James Earl Jones

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. — James Earl Jones

There is not enough magic in a bloodline to forge an instant, irrevocable bond. — James Earl Jones

Do I call? Do I text? Do I send a Facebook message? Do I send up a smoke signal? How does one do that? Will I set my rented house on fire? How embarrassed will I be when I have to tell the home's owner, actor James Earl Jones, that I burned his house down trying to send a smoke signal? — Aziz Ansari

My grandmother though, began to prepare in her own neurotic - and I think psychotic - way to face racism. So she taught us to be racist, which is something I had to undo later when I got to Michigan, you know. — James Earl Jones

I knew real show business from my father, who had been an actor since he left the world of boxing. — James Earl Jones

Thank God that I am not over 75 so that James Earl Jones knows who the hell I am. — Linda Lavin

So in my junior year, I switched to the drama department. — 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. — James Earl Jones

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. — James Earl Jones

Actors never discuss future plans. — James Earl Jones

One day, my youngest uncle - the other one who was first to go to college, Randy - and I were sitting out on the front porch. And he was brilliant. He ended up - he just retired from Boeing Aircraft in Wichita, Kansas. — James Earl Jones

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

Oh, people will come, Ray," Phillip intones, doing his best James Earl Jones. "People will most definitely come. — Jonathan Tropper

Your own need to be shines out of any dream or creation you imagine. — James Earl Jones

Even during the rationing period, during World War II, we didn't have the anxiety that we'd starve, because we grew our own potatoes, you know? And our own hogs, and our own cows and stuff, you know. — James Earl Jones

Reading was a big thing, yes. Books were a big thing. But the things that stick out were the newspapers. — James Earl Jones

What do you mean, a ghost? The Honorable James Augustus Peregrine Pympoole-Bothame, heir to the fourteenth Earl of Hardsdale, is taking no insults from young girls! — Kerstin Gier

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. — James Earl Jones

I don't ever want to be a sentimentalist. I prefer to be a realist. I'm not a romantic really. — James Earl Jones

And listen
tell your friend to try English Breakfast net time. It's a little more robust. Earl Grey is really more of a 'Sense and Sensibility' kind of tea.
Cab driver to J.D. Jameson — Julie James

You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray [the confessed assassin of Martin Luther King]. We miss you, James. Godspeed. — Rush Limbaugh

If you live in an oppressive society, you've got to be resilient. You can't let each little thing crush you. You have take every encounter and make yourself larger, rather than allow yourself to be diminished by it. — James Earl Jones

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. — James Earl Jones

People who lusted after Marilyn Monroe had no idea she stuttered. It is the secret of her sexiness, actually. — James Earl Jones

The Flyboy who got away became president of the United States. What might have been for Warren Earl, Dick, Marve, Glenn, Floyd, Jimmy, the unidentified airman, and all the Others who had lost their lives? ... And what might have been for those millions of doomed Japanese boys, abused and abandoned by their leaders? War is the tragedy of what might have been. — James D. Bradley

I do not know if it is true that all actors want to direct and all directors want to act, but in 1972 I tried directing and decided I had better stick to acting. — James Earl Jones

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

It has to be real, and I think a lot of the problems we have as a society is because we don't acknowledge that family is important, and it has to be people who are present, you know, and mothers and fathers, both are not present enough with children. — James Earl Jones

The trailblazers are my role models in this industry: Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, James Earl Jones, and Billy Dee Williams. I keep their pictures in my trailer and try to measure to their standards every time I act. — Brian J. White

When I was a young kid, my pops introduced me to it. He took me to Harlem, 145th and Edgecombe, to watch the filming of Claudine with James Earl Jones and Diahann Carroll. That was my first taste of seeing a set and the cameras, and I was bit by the acting bug at a young age. — Tracy Morgan

So in my sophomore year, I took a senior anatomy class. I thought anatomy - being the thing that I should be most interested in - and if I could hack, as we called it, a senior class, I would continue. I didn't hack the senior class. — James Earl Jones