“A poet or a comedian can say what’s on the mind of people. They should be funny. They should make you laugh. It may be so truthful that it hurts, but it makes you laugh.”

You need Black [people] sometimes to understand things about Black culture.

Hip-hop is about tearing down the system to better it, tearing down the system to better themselves. No matter how flimsy it might seem, they always wanted the finer things in life.

I don’t like to say, Oh, this is my favorite record because there was a moment that that record made me feel a certain way. The one on the radio at the present moment could be the one that’s most inspiring, because it’s at that second that you’re aware of “the infinite everything.”

Mistakes only cost you when you don’t acknowledge them.

I think it’s very important. I’ve gone into prisons to meditate with inmates. It’s something I plan to do with Tim Robbins soon.

Hollywood is full of very liberal people, but it still has an infrastructure that needs to be broken.

I don’t believe that people create their own visions. Rather, I believe that visions are actually God’s way of communicating with us.

Not every move you make has to be a great leap

The elected officials should be working for the voters who elected them. Money corrupts the process. Why would you be giving a candidate money unless you expect something in return?

The research shows that if you meditate, the mind becomes still, and they can see the functionality and gray matter in the brain increase, the nervous system calm, the immune system improve and a reduction in stress.

I think that diversity is key for the next American entrepreneurs. They want to be a part of this society where there is so much diversity they have to have people from all the experiences.

The world belongs to the people who say, ‘I can’.

Well, it’s the last step of the Civil Rights Movement: you know, wrap your hands around some money.

No matter where you’re from or what you’ve done, you’re never stuck in a particular circumstance, relationship, or cycle unless you say you are.

You have to be present, awake and happy now.

I think I’m less afraid of failure than some others.

Craig Nelson who is an actor and is in a show called Coach in the United States. We began to do some improvisational stuff and we used to get laughs and things.

If people are watching television by themselves, it makes them part of a community of people laughing.

There’s a difference between a sense of humor and a sense of funny. A sense of humor is knowing what makes you laugh and a sense of funny is knowing what makes other people laugh. The journey of comedy, in a sense, is negotiating those two worlds.

There is something about being a director where, for me personally, I get to . . . it’s the closest I’ll ever come to being able to be a stand up.

I was born with a priceless gift, the ability to laugh at the misfortunes of others.

Every laugh is not equal. They come from different places. That’s sort of the challenge I go towards, making sure the laughs are for the reasons I want. It becomes a back and forth dance with the audience.

The most exciting thing I aspire to do is to write something new that I know is going to work, or perform something that I know is going to make people laugh.

A good laugh makes any interview, or any conversation, so much better.