Cheech Marin Quotes

By the time I discovered Chicano painters in the mid-'80s, I recognized that these guys were really world-class painters, but they weren't getting any attention, which was good in one sense in that I could get their work for cheaper!

I'm the go-to guy for Mexican priests. I'm the new Barry Fitzgerald, except with a Mexican accent.

In the end, the great leveler in any sport is performance on the field or on the court. Kids don't care what language players speak or if they eat tacos, rice, or sauerkraut. They don't care if they're white, black, or brown.

To me, you have to declare yourself a Chicano in order to be a Chicano. That makes a Chicano a Mexican-American with a defiant political attitude that centers on his or her right to self-definition. I'm a Chicano because I say I am.

It is surprising how many professional athletes, along with their families and friends, are gaga over movie and music stars, and the reverse is true with entertainers and sports stars.

I want my kids to grow up to be a useful citizen.

Comedy teams are a real hard thing to do. That's why you don't see any of them.

To do a comedy team, it requires so much extracurricular stuff, so much compromise, so much intuitiveness to know what the other guy is doing. That's why it's so hard to do it.

As much as I loved Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Junior Gilliam, and Don Newcombe, I loved watching Willie Mays play more than all of them combined, even if he played for the 'bad guys!'

You know you're in a bad movie when the Catholic clergy is being played by Jews.

Every kid that goes to Catholic school believes he's going to be a priest one day.

At the end of the day, it not only doesn't make logical sense to deny licenses to undocumented immigrants, it doesn't make financial sense.

So what's really behind the 'English Only' Movement? Fear. Fear of being taken over and one day they will have to learn something different. Heaven forbid they would have to learn something new.

Every medium has its own projection, and I find animation is much bigger than normal.

I lived in an all-black neighborhood, followed by an all-white one, and other kids in the always called me Mexican in both neighborhoods.

There are some Chicanos who don't want to be Chicanos - they want to be Mexican-American, Hispanic, or even Spanish.

I've always wanted to be able to say that I come from Los Angeles, California and feel quintessentially American - even if I said that in Spanish.

If there is one phrase or action that every person on the planet would like to erase from his or her memory or have the chance to undo, it would be, 'Let's do it again.'

Mexicans are quasi-legal.

My interest in art must have started with my Catholic upbringing. Art was everywhere: churches with its paintings, sculptures, stained glass, textiles, and fine metalwork.

I was part of the draft resistance movement in L.A. where we did demonstrations at the draft centre and burned our cards and made a lot of trouble on campus. I had a student classification and they said that anybody who'd taken part in these demonstrations would be reclassified and drafted. And that's when I went to Canada.

What I look for when I see a piece of art for the first time is some kind of emotional, intellectual experience, that's a combination of both of those things and is informed by my knowledge and something new that I see the artist doing.

The word 'Chicano' was originally a derisive term from Mexicans to other Mexicans living in the United States.

Don't ever insult a Chicano about being a Chicano because then all the other Chicanos will be on you with a vengeance. They will even fight each to be first in line to support you.

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, my wife speaks five languages: Russian, English, French, Italian and, out of self-defense, Spanish. I watched her learn Spanish in three months.

My marriage was breaking up, and my marriage with Chong was breaking up. I had to come back and kind of start on my own again.

Rich white guys. That's the true minority.

The reason we're so dangerous is because we're totally harmless.

Of all the plays in baseball, stealing home is by far the most exciting.

I've never seen a NASCAR race; I've seen an Indianapolis 500 race.

I wouldn't want them [kids] to raid my liquor cabinet and glug down my bourbon either.

Chicanos and running water are endlessly fascinating. I can watch them all day.

Our first gig was a battle of the bands. We did 45 minutes of comedy and never played a note - and we won!

I drive an S80 Volvo; it's one of those real flashy cars. No, I just like it because I like a nice, cush ride; the Volvo is really cush, and it's powerful and fast.

When I lived in Paris in the early '80s, I had the occasion to hang out with Prince Albert of Monaco quite a few times.

One of the great things about a celebrity pro-am is that you get to play along with the very best professional golfers in the world.

You have to want to be Chicano to be Chicano.

Just about every Latin American country has sent players to the big leagues, from the Dominican Republic to Costa Rica.

Yeah, I'm the go-to guy for Mexican priests.

I'm old enough to make my own decisions.

Convenience is the American way.

The very first time I got to drive by myself, I took a bunch of my friends to school and was caught by a motorcycle cop going 90 miles an hour on a back street.

I love voice work.

For the most part, people are proud of the place from which they come.