Joe Morton Quotes
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When I first came into New York City, what I did was, I didn't have very much money, and I couldn't afford pictures or a resume, so what I used to do is I would tear off the back of a matchbook, and I'd write my name and telephone number on the back of the matchbook.
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I entered Hofstra University as a psychology major.
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When we were bringing 'Raisin' onto Broadway, our first stop was at Arena in D.C. Several things struck me about being in D.C.: One was the enormous poverty around the capital at that time - it was 1973, '74 - and I was stunned by people literally living in poverty, with holes in their houses and other things.
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I love doing movies but I loved doing theatre just as much.
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If you have the skill, then you can move as you age.
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It's funny: We have so many shows and so many channels and so many things to occupy people as entertainment, especially with a show like 'Scandal,' which is clearly a hit, with a lot of heat around it - but every once in a while, people will say, 'What are you doing?' and I'll say 'Scandal,' and they'll have no idea what I'm talking about.
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I think it talks about that there needs to be some proactive attack against drugs infiltrating our culture.
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I think theater is the strongest place to find what's missing in entertainment. Unfortunately, it pays the least.
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In the case of Papa Pope, certainly he's making his daughter's world and the world of the republic a much better place.
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Most of my career I purposely spent doing good guys.
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You make up your mind what part you want to read for and why. It's kept me focused - on what's important, what I want, and what I don't.
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Because of 'Terminator 2,' you get not pigeonholed but circled as one of those guys who can understand their way through a movie like that and hold it down.
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When I started, black people were either victims or they were the perpetrators; they were the boogie men who jumped out of the bushes and did terrible things to you.
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If we're still talking about the same thing 40 or 50 years later, then that means we're not doing anything about it.
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You don't have the opportunity to win an Emmy unless you're given the opportunity to play certain kinds of roles.
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Without mentioning any names, there was a film that was being done, and I ran into the producer on the plane. It was a book that I really, really loved, and I said, 'I'd love to be a part of this.' And they made it clear that that was not going to be possible - for no particular reason other than that there was just no part for a black person.
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I think the responsibility that any actor has is to bring some truth to the work.
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I don't think you can play a villain with a negative point of view.
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There's nothing better than an educated actor - not only educated in his craft but educated in the world.
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I think it might be interesting to give an Emmy to an outstanding background performance in either a comedy or drama series.
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I suppose I prefer kind of epic dramas like, oh, I don't know... 'Lawrence Of Arabia' or 'Apocalypse Now'; those are the movies that I have a tendency to be most fond of.
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In the 1980s, there was no category to stick me in. 'He sounds too smart' is what I was hearing. I realized that I had to become a member of the school of what I call 'ugly acting.' Which meant I wanted to do what Dustin Hoffman did very successfully: to play character roles, but lead character roles.
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Hollywood has successfully produced many films framed by anti-racist or pro-integrationist story lines. I'm going to guess that since 'Gone With The Wind,' Hollywood realized films about racism and segregation pull at the heartstrings of everyone and hopefully serve to purge a sense of guilt.
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If there's no craft there, then once the looks go, there goes your career.