Poitier Quotes & Sayings

I defend myself by improving myself. — Sidney Poitier

Every year, Hollywood is looking for that new, white leading man and new white starlet that audiences fall in love with. But they're not looking for the next Denzel Washington, Will Smith or Sidney Poitier. — Chadwick Boseman

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

I became the storyteller of South Side Chicago. I used an old Kiwi liquid shoe polish as a microphone. I'd go around the house interviewing everybody, telling stupid jokes, doing voices. I mimicked Sidney Poitier, Sammy Davis Jr., people on 'Laugh-In,' Flip Wilson. — Bernie Mac

Our fellow Negro citizens could be summed up in something Tessie said after watching Sidney Poitier's performance in To Sir with Love, which opened a month before the riots. She said, You see, they can speak perfectly normal if they want. — Jeffrey Eugenides

I'd seen my father. He was a poor man, and I watched him do astonishing things. — Sidney Poitier

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

Have you ever heard of 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?' I would like to play Sidney Poitier's role - I love that role. — Keith Stanfield

Acting isn't a game of "pretend." It's an exercise in being real. — Sidney Poitier

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

I was not the kind of a principal player that was so in demand that eight or 10 or 12 scripts came per month. — Sidney Poitier

I wanted to look at them because I feel, internally, that I am an ordinary person who has had an extraordinary life. — Sidney Poitier

My mother was the most amazing person. She taught me to be kind to other women. She believed in family. She was with my father from the first day they met. All that I am, she taught me. — Sidney Poitier

I want my great-granddaughter to have a fairly good understanding of the world in which I lived for 81 years and also the world before I came into it - all the way back a hundred thousand years, to the beginning of our species. — Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poitier and Sidney Lumet were instrumental in helping me get started as the first black composer to get name credit for movie scores. — Quincy 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

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. — Sidney Poitier

I had two roles for which I compromised. — Sidney Poitier

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

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. — Sidney Poitier

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

But perhaps more important, as someone wishing to make a comment or two about contemporary life and values, I don't have to dig through libraries or travel to exotic lands to arrive at a view of our modern situation refracted through the lens of the preindustrial world, or the uncommercialized, unfranchised, perhaps unsanitized-and therefore supposedly more "authentic"-perspective ofthe Third World. Very simply, this is because that "other" world, as alien as if separated by centuries in time, is the one from which I came — Sidney Poitier

I didn't run into racism until we moved to Nassau when I was ten and a half, but it was vastly different from the kind of horrendous oppression that black people in Miami were under when I moved there at 15. I found Florida an antihuman place. — Sidney Poitier

I'm going to quit writing. — Sidney Poitier

When you act a scene with Sidney Poitier, he listens intently to every word you say. You can feel your words hit him. He makes the scene utterly real. — Judy Geeson

If the screen does not make room for me in the structure of their screenplay, I'll step out. I'll step back. I'd step back. I couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it. — Sidney Poitier

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

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

I was playing this horrible part. I didn't didn't want to play it because the character was an awful racist. But I'm glad I did it because I met Sidney Poitier. — Richard Widmark

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

My father was a poor man, very poor in a British colonial possession where class and race were very important. — Sidney Poitier

My autobiography was simply the story of my life. — Sidney Poitier

I starred in a Broadway play that was Sidney Poitier's first directing job and the cast was Lou Gossett, Cicely Tyson, Diana Ladd and I played a Jewish kid who offered himself as a slave to two Columbia University students as reparations. — David Steinberg

If the image one holds of one's self contains elements that don't square with reality, one is best advised to let go of them, however difficult that may be. — Sidney Poitier

My wife collects knickknacks. — Sidney Poitier

My first love was acting. I went to Sidney Poitier films as a kid. I sat in the theater and dreamed of being an actor. — Carl Weathers

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. — Sidney Poitier

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. — Sidney Poitier

Marriage is no way of life for the weak, the selfish, or the insecure. — Sidney Poitier

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

Stay from underfoot and don't get into any trouble. You hear me?" "Yes, ma'am, I hear you." Due to past experience, she may not have completely believed me. When — Sidney Poitier

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. — Sidney Poitier

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

When you walk with someone, something unspoken happens. Either you match their pace or they match yours. — Sidney Poitier

The older we get the less afraid we are. — Sidney Poitier

I'm not a library. — Sidney Poitier

I have always been a learner because I knew nothing. — Sidney Poitier

I am not a hugely religious person, but I believe that there is a oneness with everything. And because there is this oneness, it is possible that my mother is the principal reason for my life. — Sidney Poitier

Usually, you get to interview that one girl who plays the sister on some Disney show - you interview that girl a lot - but sometimes, every once in a while, you get to interview a legend. I have interviewed some amazingly iconic people, including Michelle Obama, Oprah, Sidney Poitier and Judy Dench. These people are legit icons. — Ross Mathews

As I've mentioned, a large part of my father's legacy is the lesson he taught his sons. He brought us together and said, 'The measure of a man is how well he provides for his children. — Sidney Poitier

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. — Sidney Poitier

In my case, the body of work stands for itself ... I think my work has been representative of me as a man. — Sidney Poitier

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. — Sidney Poitier

Accept that environment compromises values far more than values do their number on environment. — Sidney Poitier

A person doesn't have to change who he is to become better. — Sidney Poitier

When I was growing up, I didn't see me in the movies except in certain lesser roles. If it wasn't funny, I wasn't there. Then Sidney Poitier came along, and he wasn't funny. He was just good. There's me. So that was my pattern. — Morgan Freeman

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

If you are anxious about death, then you don't have a sense of the oneness of things-you feel that after death, you will be no more. — Sidney Poitier

I took one thing to heart that I heard from Sidney Poitier in 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.' And it resonated so much with me. He says: 'Dad, you always looked at yourself as a black man. I look at myself as a man.' — Dennis Haysbert

White people found that freedom was indeed indivisible. We had kept saying in the dark days of apartheid's oppression that white South Africans would never be truly free until we blacks were free as well. Many thought it was just another Tutu slogan, irresponsible as all his others had been. Today they were experiencing it as a reality. I used to refer to an intriguing old film The Defiant Ones, in which Sidney Poitier was one of the stars. Two convicts escape from a chain gang. They are manacled together, the one white, the other black. They fall into a ditch with slippery sides. The one convict claws his way nearly to the top and out of the ditch but cannot make it because he is bound to his mate, who has been left at the bottom in the ditch. The only way they can make it is together as they strive up and up and up together and eventually make their way over the side wall and out. — Desmond Tutu

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

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

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

I started with Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee and Lou Gossett, Jr. and the rest of the wonderful cast of 'A Raisin In The Sun.' We were directed by the great Lloyd Richards. The play was written by the wonderful Lorraine Hansberry, and it was produced by Phil Rose. That's where my start was, so ... not a bad way to start. — Glynn Turman

My father was the quintessential husband and dad. — Sidney Poitier

Child psychologists have demonstrated that our minds are actually constructed by these thousands of tiny interactions during the first few years of life. We aren't just what we're taught. It's what we experience during those early years - a smile here, a jarring sound there - that creates the pathways and connections of the brain. We put our kids to fifteen years of quick-cut advertising, passive television watching, and sadistic video games, and we expect to see emerge a new generation of calm, compassionate, and engaged human beings? — Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poitier, who is class personified, said: 'Lou, you're a leading man because you're a good actor.' Brought tears to my eyes. — Lou Diamond Phillips

If you apply reason and logic to this career of mine, you're not going to get very far. You simply won't. — Sidney Poitier

You don't have to become something that you aren't to become better than you are. — Sidney Poitier

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

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

Every new fashion is a form of rebellion. — Sidney Poitier

You don't have to become something you're not to be better than you were. — Sidney Poitier

Every film by Will Smith, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Lena Horne, Ruby Dee, Don Cheadle will have great acting and carry good messages in the film. The films starring those actors are the films I tell young people to watch for good acting and to view for quality movies. — Brian J. White

In America, it is difficult to be your own man. — Sidney Poitier

I want people to say at the end of my day, you know, like I used to say about Sidney Poitier and James Cagney and Joan Crawford and Red Skelton and those guys and Bill Cosby. They did quality and substance. You always remember them. — Bernie Mac

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. — Sidney Poitier

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

I find myself, at this time in my life, no less challenged, no less plagued, no less intrigued by what I still don't know. — Sidney Poitier

Forgiveness works two ways, in most instances. People have to forgive themselves too. The powerful have to forgive themselves for their behavior. That should be a sacred process. — Sidney Poitier

I did not go into the film business to be symbolized as someone else's vision of me. — Sidney Poitier

Sydney Poitier, who said to Lester Maddox, Guess who's not coming to dinner? Never got a dinner! — Red Buttons

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

I learned to hear silence. That's the kind of life I lived: simple. I learned to see things in people around me, in my mom, dad, brothers and sisters. — Sidney Poitier

Racism is very painful. That's life. It never ends. — Sidney Poitier

I'll always be chasing you ... Glory. — Sidney Poitier

Far as I can tell, I still have most of my hair, my gut is not hanging over my belt, and I still have all of my teeth. — Sidney Poitier

I sometimes like the pictures photographers take of me. — Sidney Poitier

I have a kind of respect
a worshipful attitude, even
for nature and the natural order and the cosmos and the seasons ... — Sidney Poitier

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

If I'm remembered for having done a few good things, and if my presence here has sparked some good energies, that's plenty. — Sidney Poitier

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

My father was very big on marriage. — Sidney Poitier

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. — Sidney Poitier

I get offered work these days. — Sidney Poitier

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

Sidney Poitier became a star in part by helping black and white Americans negotiate their new relationship in the post-Civil Rights era. — Wesley Morris

I do know that I'm responsible not for what happens, but for what I make of it. — Sidney Poitier

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. — Sidney Poitier