Pryor Quotes

I bought my parents a home before they died, and they got to see that I was going to be all right. They always thought I would go someplace. ~ Richard Pryor

Yes, being black is a full-time job: sometimes you are invisible, other times you are hyper-visible," he says. "Sometimes you are welcome, other times you are not. The thermostat is always moving and you have to keep adapting to find some comfort level. Richard Pryor used to talk about going to Africa and people there telling him he was white. Even though he was black, he just wasn't black enough. ~ Paul Beatty

Dr. Jan Yager, a sociologist, friendship expert and author of When Friendship Hurts, states, "For some, admitting to a broken friendship has become like admitting to a failed marriage. Over the last two decades, a myth of lifelong friendship has emerged, even as the ideal of a lifelong marriage has, sadly, become an unrealistic reality for many people. ~ Liz Pryor

This first part may be a little rough.' He waved a hand and did his best to appear as if he'd had enormous experience with levitating buildings. ~ Michael Pryor

If you want a friend, you don't buy a friend, Eric, you earn a friend through love and trust and respect. ~ Richard Pryor

This was war: a vast machine that chewed up people. ~ Michael Pryor

looked at the plaster on her arm, ~ Lindsay J. Pryor

I had to stop drinkin, cuz I got tired of waking up in my car driving ninety. ~ Richard Pryor

Show me one guy or woman as funny as Rodney Dangerfield or as good as George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, or Joan Rivers. There are a lot of good comics out there, no doubt, but as far as the quality of the comics goes, I think what you have is a bunch of situational comics. ~ Chris Rock

If I thought about it, I could be bitter, but I don't feel like being bitter. Being bitter makes you immobile, and there's too much that I still want to do. ~ Richard Pryor

As it stands right now, I lead Richard Pryor in heart attacks, two to one. However, Richard still leads me, one to nothing, in burning yourself up. ~ George Carlin

If you ask me about women's lib, I say I don't even know what that is. ~ Richard Pryor

There are only two pieces of pussy you're gonna get in your entire life, that's your first and your last. ~ Richard Pryor

My view is, Democrat, Republican, it doesn't matter, my view is I'm in Washington to try to work with people. ~ Mark Pryor

Unfortunately, the show's success comes at the expense of its biggest asset
the comedians themselves. ~ Richard Pryor

I had a couple of movies that I was passionately involved with that I could never get made. 'Richard Pryor,' I wrote for - gosh - over a year. That was close to getting made for two-and-a-half years after that. We're still pushing it, you know. It is weird. Suddenly you wake up and it's like, 'God, five years have gone by.' ~ Bill Condon

Our men and women in uniform put their lives on the line for our nation every day; they should not have to jeopardize their financial well-being as well. ~ Mark Pryor

I went through every phone book in Africa, and I didn't find one god damned Pryor! ~ Richard Pryor

Basketball also helps you learn to move your feet by playing defense and guarding guys, and that all carries over to playing football with staying square and having good footwork. ~ Calvin Pryor

It's so much easier for me to talk about my life in front of two thousand people than it is one-to-one. I'm a real defensive person, because if you were sensitive in my neighborhood you were something to eat. ~ Richard Pryor

Even when I was a little kid, I always said I would be in the movies one day, and damned if I didn't make it. ~ Richard Pryor

You're a conceited bastard, aren't you?' 'Decades of practice. ~ Lindsay J. Pryor

So I started to relax and would work on my act eight hours a day, sitting at a desk writing at my grandmother's house, and I would put on Richard Pryor Live on Long Beach and would play it like a loop and think and write. ~ George Lopez

You don't get to be old bein' no fool ... ~ Richard Pryor

Strong isn't about not being afraid, Caitlin. It's about facing what you're scared of. ~ Lindsay J. Pryor

You're a cold bastard, Caleb.' She turned on her heels, fighting back the tears as she took the first two steps back down.
'A cold bastard who feels a hell of a lot more than he should,' he declared. 'Who, despite what you have done to me here, still cannot see you walk away. Who cannot bear the thought of anyone else laying their hands on you. Who I would kill if they ever hurt you the way I have. I don't want you to be a serryn, Leila. It's the last thing I want. And you being the one I need to kill tears me apart more than you'll ever know. ~ Lindsay J. Pryor

The MS really started going downhill in 1990. ~ Richard Pryor

Last warning. I don't play nice. ~ Lindsay J. Pryor

Rebounding helps a lot with your ball skills, because you're able to go get the ball at a high point, which is what they want you to do in football. ~ Calvin Pryor

Aubrey Fitzwilliam hated being dead. It made things much harder than they needed to be. ~ Michael Pryor

When you stop relying on aversive controls such as threats, intimidation, and punishment, and when you know how to use reinforcement to get not just the same but better results, your perception of the world undergoes a shift. You don't have to become a wimp. You don't have to give up being in charge. You lose nothing of yourself. You just see things you didn't see before. ~ Karen Pryor

No man is above the law. ~ William H. Pryor, Jr.

On the comedy side of what I love as a filmmaker are Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, and Eddie Murphy; those are my favorites. ~ David Dobkin

I have already discovered that it is useless to ask neuroscientists questions that lie outside their specialty. The dopamine guys know the dopamine guys, but they don't know the cognitive-processing guys. ~ Karen Pryor

When I was in Africa, this voice came to me and said, Richard, what do you see? I said, I see all types of people. The voice said, But do you see any niggers? I said, No. It said, Do you know why? 'Cause there aren't any. ~ Richard Pryor

A lie is profanity. A lie is the worst thing in the world. Art is the ability to tell the truth. ~ Richard Pryor

I'm more than twisted. I'm the worst kind of vampire ... But you're the one who's craving me, so what does that make you? ~ Lindsay J. Pryor

My grandmother used to discipline me, I mean, beat my ass, and I deserved them, too. ~ Richard Pryor

There's only so much temptation a vampire can take. ~ Lindsay J. Pryor

Caroline rose. She studied him for a moment before sitting on his knee.
He wasn't quite sure exactly how it happened. If pressed, he would have asked for three or four hundred pages to write a description of the series of impossibly graceful bendings and movements that ended with her perched there with one hand on his shoulder. He didn't understand - and he was sure that it defied physics - how Caroline could be so light on that tiny patch of his legs, and yet so weighty in the way her presence affected him. Her gaze, for instance, probably clocked in at about fifty or sixty tons, to judge from the effect it was having on him.
He never wanted to move. Never, ever, ever. Let the heat death of the universe come along and he'd be quite happy to still have Caroline Hepworth sitting just like that, on his knee, looking at him without speaking. The tiny light of the shaded lantern was irrelevant. He saw everything, as if it were the brightest of middays.
It was so perfect, so hoped for, that Aubrey knew it couldn't last. He glanced around.
'What are you doing?' Caroline asked very, very softly.
'Looking for whoever is going to interrupt us.'
'That's a pessimistic outlook.'
'Wars, especially, have a habit of ignoring the lives of people.'
'If you follow that through, it suggests living for the moment is best.'
'Live without planning? Without dreams? That sounds rather limited.'
'And that sounds rather like Aubrey. ~ Michael Pryor

Is it safe?" Evadne asked.
"In the heart of the lair of prehistoric people who eat humans? Probably not." Pg 197 ~ Michael Pryor

Playing the martyr doesn't suit you, Leila.'
'Maybe not, but playing the complete and utter bastard clearly suits you. ~ Lindsay J. Pryor

I think about being married again, having a home and a wife. No one can ever be married too many times, and maybe if I keep trying I'll get it right one day. ~ Richard Pryor

I was scared to death because for the comics of my generation, HBO specials are like the pinnacle. I'm thinking of all these unbelievable comedians I've seen on HBO: Chris Rock, George Carlin, Damon Wayans, Richard Pryor and Billy Crystal. I started having a panic attack seeing my name in that list of people. It was pretty overwhelming. ~ Bill Burr

When I was younger, I listened to the greats: Winters, Mel and Carl, Nichols and May, Pryor, Carlin, Klein, Berman and lots of Lenny Bruce albums. But once I started doing fairly well, I didn't want to hear anybody's jokes or premises. ~ Richard Lewis

The way I see it, the earth is going to be here after we're dead and gone. Even if it's a polluted planet, and they messed it up. Where do they go from here - to another planet so they can mess that up too? ~ Richard Pryor

Sure, I have friends, plenty of friends, and they all come around wantin' to borrow money. I've always been generous with my friends and family, with money, but selfish with the important stuff like love. ~ Richard Pryor

Booty is just a ghetto expression, and I'm just a booty star. ~ Richard Pryor

Tom Cotton voted against preparing America for pandemics like Ebola ... ~ Mark Pryor

Not everybody's the perfect person in the world. I mean everyone kills people, murders people, steals from you, steals from me, whatever. I think that people need a second chance, and I've always looked up to Mike Vick, and I always will. ~ Terrelle Pryor

As far as stand-ups go, I always loved Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, and Sinbad. Basically, I love black comedians because they're the funniest. I wish I were a black comedian, actually. ~ Adam DeVine

I always look on imagination as one of the most powerful things we can cultivate in young people. If they have a good, active imagination, they can cope with life better; they are ... able to imagine possibilities and to think around problems. ~ Michael Pryor

Guys have been having a lot of questions about whether or not I can play man-to-man, so I've been watching a lot of film lately. I'm trying to study tendencies of receivers that are already in the NFL, so I can have a jump on them once I get to that next level l so I can know what to look for and what to be prepared for. ~ Calvin Pryor

There's a thin line between to laugh with and to laugh at. ~ Richard Pryor

I'm a Democrat, but I'm really bipartisan - some people might say nonpartisan. ~ Mark Pryor

If peace had a smell,it would be the smell of a library full of old, leather-bound books. ~ Mark Pryor

In due course I would learn how to cover up for this event, but on that awful day I knew of nothing to say but: 'Well, I guess they aren't going to do that either, heh, heh. FINALLY Hoku and Kiko stopped staring suspiciously through the glass long enough to go over the six bars, gracefully arcing in and out of the water against the glass, making the beautiful picture they were supposed to. I waved frantically at Chris to stop right there, to quit while we were ahead. I thanked the politely clapping audience and suggested they come back in a month and see what Hoku and Kiko could really do (I didn't have the courage to order them to KEEP clapping, and louder, please, so that Hoku and Kiko would do the applause jump). Then I yanked out the mike plug, raced down the ladder into the trainers' little sitting room underneath the stage, and took up smoking again. ~ Karen Pryor

When Richard Pryor did comedy, it was like he was having a conversation. ~ Tracy Morgan

I listened to my first comedy album in 6th grade. It was Bill Cosby. My brother and I would play it over and over on a Fisher Price record player. A friend in high school also introduced me to Richard Pryor. I wasn't writing material back then, but I would say funny stuff. I was good at making fun of people's moms. If I knew something personal about you, it would be used against you. ~ Felipe Esparza

When that fire hit your ass, it will sober your ass up quick! I saw something, I went, Well, that's a pretty blue. You know what? That looks like ... FIRE! Fire is inspirational. They should use it in the Olympics, because I ran the 100 in 4.3. ~ Richard Pryor

The king of comedy is dead. Richard Pryor was the king of comedy. The rest of them are the king of copycats. ~ Paul Mooney

What are you most scared of, Caitlin? What I can do to you, or how I make you feel? ~ Lindsay J. Pryor

Parish, get back into position!' Max warned. 'Do not go in there. I repeat, do not go in there.' 'We lose him now, we lose him for good,' Caitlin declared. 'And I am not going to let that happen.' 'You have insufficient backup. I repeat: insufficient backup. ~ Lindsay J. Pryor

He's just always positive. He's always smiling and he's always trying. ~ Richard Pryor

Let's clean up the Senate and return to politics of common ground. ~ Mark Pryor

In March I had a minor heart attack while I was vacationing in Australia. it scared me, but it was nothing compared to what someone had in store for me down the road. ~ Richard Pryor

When I became a standup comic, my hero, one of them, was Richard Pryor, and you know, I think that comedians, like, comedians talk about hacks, and what a hack is, is someone who does stuff that's not original. ~ Artie Lange

I'd much rather see Richard Pryor or Jackie Mason in a theater than in a club. ~ Elayne Boosler

God has chosen, through his son Jesus Christ, this time, this place for all Christians - Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox - to save our country and save our courts. ~ William H. Pryor, Jr.

That aversives stop behavior, they don't start it; and that fear and pain produce completely unpredictable and usually highly undesirable side effects, including being both exciting and reinforcing to the punisher. I have ~ Karen Pryor

Love is fragile, It can easily break, So take care of it, Cherish it, Respect it. ~ Jade Pryor

I went to Zimbabwe. I know how white people feel in America now; relaxed! Cause when I heard the police car I knew they weren't coming after me! ~ Richard Pryor

When I was a bit older I had all of the George Carlin records, all of the Steve Martin records, all of the Cheech and Chong records and all of the Richard Pryor records. ~ Marc Maron

The truth is, I've never thought of myself as the Michael Jordan of comedy. And that's a good thing. You know why? Because I'm not. Wasn't that Richard Pryor? Yes, it was. I know what I am: I'm funny! ~ Tracy Morgan

We die, you die. You die, we survive. I think there's a pecking order in that, don't you? ~ Lindsay J. Pryor

I don't do this relationship shit, Caitlin. But I see you because I want to see you; I'm with you because I want to be with you. That's the truth. ~ Lindsay J. Pryor

Kane narrowed his eyes. 'Where have you been all this time, Caitlin?' She could see the suspicion in his eyes, the accusation.

'Tied to a radiator.'

'What is it about you that makes people want to cuff you, huh? ~ Lindsay J. Pryor

I griped about it at lunch one day to Bill Weist and Dr. Leslie Squier, our visiting psychologists from Reed College. I'd been trying to train one otter to stand on a box, I told them. No problem getting the behavior; as soon as I put the box in the enclosure, the otter rushed over and climbed on top of it. She quickly understood that getting on the box earned her a bite of fish, But. As soon as she got the picture, she began testing the parameters. 'Would you like me lying down on the box? What if I just put three feet on the box? Suppose I hang upside down from the edge of the box? Suppose I stand on it and look under it at the same time? How about if I put my front paws on it and bark?' For twenty minutes she offered me everything imaginable except just getting on the box and standing there. It was infuriating, and strangely exhausting. The otter would eat her fish and then run back to the box and present some new, fantastic variation and look at me expectantly (spitefully, even, I thought) while I struggled once more to decide if what she was doing fit my criteria or not.

My psychologist friends flatly refused to believe me; no animal acts like that. If you reinforce a response, you strengthen the chance that the animal will repeat what it was doing when it was reinforced; you don't precipitate some kind of guessing game.

So I showed them. We all went down to the otter tank, and I took the other otter and attempted to get it to swim through a small ~ Karen Pryor

The American experiment is not a theocracy and does not establish an official religion, but the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are rooted in a Christian perspective of the nature of government and the nature of man. The challenge of the next millennium will be to preserve the American experiment by restoring its Christian perspective. ~ William H. Pryor, Jr.

At least I'm trying to understand you. But your mind is already made up. The truth is you want me to be like the others. You need me to be like them. You can't handle the fact that I'm different. I think that says more about you than me. ~ Lindsay J. Pryor

Have you ever noticed how quiet you get when you go in the woods? It's almost like you know that God's there. ~ Richard Pryor

One reason punishment doesn't usually work is that it does not coincide with the undesirable behavior; it occurs afterward, and sometimes, as in courts of law, long afterward. The subject therefore may not connect the punishment to his or her previous deeds; animals never do, and people often fail to. If a finger fell off every time someone stole something, or if cars burst into flames when they were parked illegally, I expect stolen property and parking tickets would be nearly nonexistent. ~ Karen Pryor

As a Democrat in this Senate, I felt aggrieved by some things the other side has done. I have no doubt they feel aggrieved about some of the things we have done. ~ Mark Pryor

I don't see myself getting married again, but if I do, it will be forever. ~ Richard Pryor

I'm already inside your head. And your body's most definitely next. ~ Lindsay J. Pryor

To be diagnosed was the hardest thing because I didn't know what they were talking about ... And the doctor said, Don't worry, in three months you'll know. So I went about my business and then, one day, it jumped me. I couldn't get up ... Your muscles trick you; they did me. ~ Richard Pryor

You don't have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate. ~ Mark Pryor

I had seen movies before that that had made me laugh, but I had never seen anything even remotely close to as funny as Richard Pryor was, just standing there talking. ~ Joe Rogan

Vampires might bite, honey, but lycans tear. ~ Lindsay J. Pryor

I believe the ability to think is blessed. If you can think about a situation, you can deal with it. The big struggle is to keep your head clear enough to think. ~ Richard Pryor

A sold-out house my first night back. Do you have any idea what kinda pressure that is? I could have been at home in my warm bed, playing Nintendo. ~ Richard Pryor

I'm not for integration and I'm not against it. ~ Richard Pryor

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

There was a time in my life when I thought I had everything - millions of dollars, mansions, cars, nice clothes, beautiful women, and every other materialistic thing you can imagine. Now I struggle for peace. ~ Richard Pryor

I can't just say the words, do a lot of one-liners. I love each person I play; I have to be that person. I have to do him true. ~ Richard Pryor

If he touches me, I'll kill him.' 'If he touches you, I'll kill him,' he said, gazing deep into her eyes. ~ Lindsay J. Pryor

I love comedy and I would write things to myself as an exercise in writing. I didn't do well for years, and I quit. I started to break down why I was afraid and started to look at people I admired, like Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Freddie Prinze, George Carlin and all. ~ George Lopez

Being able to write creatively or read creative fiction is the best way to exercise your imagination. ~ Michael Pryor

As he [Sir Malcolm Sargeant, conductor of the London Philharmonic] stood in waist deep in the shallows of Whaler's Cove, the littler spinners came drifting over, sleek and dainty, gazing at him curiously with their soft dark eyes. Malcolm was a tactful, graceful man in his movements, and so the spinners were not afraid of him. In moments, he had them all pressing around him, swimming into his arms, and begging him to swim away with them. He looked up, suffused with delight, and remarked to me, 'It's like finding out there really are fairies at the bottom of the garden! ~ Karen Pryor

I'm not addicted to cocaine. I just like the way it smells. ~ Richard Pryor