Quotes By Sidney Poitier

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

I sometimes like the pictures photographers take of me.

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

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 couldn't adjust to the racism in Florida.

In America, it is difficult to be your own man.

I had two roles for which I compromised.

Far as I can tell, I still have most of my hair, my gut is not hanging over my belt, and I still have all of my teeth.

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

When I set out to become an actor, I had set myself a standard.

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

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

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

I'm not a library.

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 get offered work these days.

My father was very big on marriage.

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

I'm going to quit writing.

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

I don't very often read novels.

I'll always be chasing you... Glory.

I cannot be understood in three minutes.

Generally, I tend to despise human behavior rather than human creatures.

I come from a great family. I've seen family life and I know how wonderful, how nurturing, and how wonderful it can be.

An appreciable number of directors have shifted to lower-cost films, allowing them to be satisfied with a more modest return.

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.