“It took me a long time to get to where I’m at, in my career and as a man. I was going through my trials and tribulations in life, and it gave me the strength to tackle things that have come my way.”

I have Glocks, .45s, Berettas, Remingtons. I like the marksmanship and the discipline that it takes to be a gun owner. I like the machinery. Being able to take it out and clean it is even more fascinating than having the gun.

When I hit my 20s, I struggled to make it. I got married at 19, and my daughter, Je’Niece, was born a year later. I worked blue collar jobs during the day and comedy clubs at night, and I was earning about $25 a year doing stand-up.

Bernie Mac don’t sugarcoat.

I want to speak directly to the audience, to say, ‘I’m like you – I’m frustrated, I’m not an expert, I don’t have a manual on parenting, I make mistakes, I’m selfish too.’

You can’t be a doctor if you don’t know the entire parts of the body.

I know doing movies is where I need to be. That’s where my audience wants to see me.

You know you poor when you eatin’ breakfast food late. You fryin’ toast? At nine o’clock at night? With bacon? You’re broke.

Hugs aren’t like pieces of pie. Plenty of hugs to go around.

My humor had changed from foolishness to making sense.

You’re never going to see me playing a buffoon.

I think a lot of TV insults the audience.

I can act. I’ve been acting for a long time, but like anything else, don’t nobody owe you nothing. You’ve go to pay your dues. You go from A to Z; you don’t go from M to Z.

I was a street performer for two years.

I’m not afraid to fail. Sometimes when you lose, you win. Sometimes when you win, you lose.

You can’t change what happened. Just like you can’t change the future by worrying about it. You just have to keep moving.

Bernie Mac just says what you think but are afraid to say.

A lot of people in Hollywood, and everywhere pretty much, operate on fear. No one wants to get fired, so everyone’s scared to take a chance.

Some idea of inflation comes from seeing a youngster get his first job at a salary you dreamed of as the culmination of your career.

Now, I’ve gotten to the point in my career, I’m 13 years in, to where I know that I’m funny. I know that I’m good at this.

Maybe I’m naive, but I subscribe to the idea that nobody is actually making strategic decisions about their career. Trying to do that would be like playing three-card monte on Canal Street.

The NBA wasn’t a big deal at that time, so it wasn’t really in my career plans.

10′ was amazing! I had no career before ’10’ and then all of a sudden I was able to do pretty much whatever I was able to do in the business.

I have competed before empty stadiums a lot in my career.

I have no idea where my career is going. I just make the best music that I possibly can.