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.

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

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

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

I decided in my life that I would do nothing that did not reflect positively on my father’s life.

Jackie Robinson is a true legend.

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

There is not racial or ethnic domination of hopelessness. It’s everywhere.

My autobiography was simply the story of my life.

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.

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

So I’m OK with myself, with history, my work, who I am and who I was.

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

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

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.

I had learned something of Miami from people who had visited there, so I knew what to expect.

History passes the final judgment.

So it’s been kind of a long road, but it was a good journey altogether.

But I always had the ability to say no. That’s how I called my own shots.

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.

I’ll always be chasing you… Glory.

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

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

I was the only Black person on the set. It was unusual for me to be in a circumstance in which every move I made was tantamount to representation of 18 million people.

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

The journey has been incredible from its beginning.

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

Mine was an easy ride compared to Jackie Robinson’s.

I’ve had it all my life and when it can time for me to start a family, I was quite anxious to do so.

We all suffer from the preoccupation that there exists… in the loved one, perfection.

Since I couldn’t actuate the things that I wanted to do, the only weapon I had was to say no.

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