I was down in Wilmington, Delaware, doing 'The Desk Set' with Shirley Booth. I was at the DuPont Hotel. I walked out, and there was this grill next door called the New England Grill. I loved seafood. They said very nicely, 'We don't serve colored people.'
— Louis Gossett, Jr.
We are born with freedom and hope, but often that's dashed because of our color. But in school, I'd already been taught that no one could tell me that you can't do something because you're black.
I am so grateful that the public has given me this gift. They look at me as a person - not as a race or a color. The word for it is freedom - to be accepted as me.
I believe the gift of acting is a gift from God, my oath to God, and I want to make sure on a daily basis that it is honed and deeply spiritual... I want to believe that the audience believes that my acting comes from this special place.
It's presumptuous for us to think we are the only beings in the cosmos.
One of my best friends while shooting 'Roots' was Vic Morrow, the guy that whips Kunta.
The only time I was really free was when the director said 'Action' in front of a camera or on the stage, and that's when I flew.
Some Marine units actually use 'An Officer and a Gentleman' in their training programs.
Working on the ABC movie 'Don't Look Back: The Story of Leroy 'Satchel' Paige,'' which we filmed in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was a special pleasure, particularly because I'd played baseball in high school.
I was invited to play with the New York Knicks. I was never drafted, but I was invited to the rookie camp.
My father was adopted. He grew up in the Italian household.
I was always told that I'd have to do a movie with a white guy in order to get the money. That's the way it was. That made me feel that I should have chosen some other profession, so I could have gotten my just deserts.
I was president of the schools in junior high and high school, got a scholarship to New York University, played a little basketball, and was a celebrity.
When I'm offered a role, I look at what I think I can do with it. I look to see if I can project myself into it.
I grew up with all my cousins. The men worked, and the older women raised us - my mother, my aunt, my grandmother. My great-grandmother was the matriarch, and sometimes there were 30 of us.
I had an Oscar, an Emmy, and yet I had this big hole in my soul.
Never made a million dollars from any of my 78 movies. People thought I had this fortune, which I never had.
There are beautiful words in the Bible and in our pledges and the Declaration of Independence.
We started the family Bible after slavery was abolished. My great-grandmother remembered the Bible being started, which meant that she was a slave as a young girl. When she died, the Bible was at least 105 years old, so she must have been nearly 115 years old. Her daughter, my grandmother, died at 97, and her husband at 98.
George Clooney and Brad Pitt, with those 'Oceans' films they do, they get to work together, make a whole lot of money, and make a major film statement. Imagine if once a year, myself, Denzel Washington, Laurence Fishburne, James Earl Jones, we did some relevant film together to make a statement.
One family, one nation, indivisible. That mentality is essential for our salvation.
Sometimes I believe that the reason I have been able to do such exemplary work on the screen is because this is the only place I can be free, neither censured nor judged.
We need to do whatever it takes to get our children together and pay attention to them, because that's our future. What's in the hearts and minds of our children is what's in our future.
'Avatar' was gorgeous. There are good stories in there, but when used in other movies they're similar to those violent video games. Characters using deadly weapons. The children follow these movies.
I'm cancer-free. And I'm on antioxidants and acupuncture and a different diet. And I have a different outlook on life. I don't have resentment any more. It's wonderful.
The worst resentment that anybody can have is one you feel justified to keep.
I didn't know anything about acting, I didn't know anything about theater, but I was just an exceptional student at high school. I wanted to play ball; I'm going after a basketball scholarship and be a doctor. I got injured and my marks began to drop.
I can do more than anyone suspects. I pride myself on my versatility. It took 32 years of difficult parts, second leads, villains and juveniles. The Oscar changed the quality of the roles I was being offered.
When '12 Years a Slave' got that much attention, everyone started to copy that. That story has to be told, but there are a lot more stories to be told than slavery.
After the Academy Award, well, I was left with a lot of time on my hands. I thought I'd get a lot of offers - and they didn't come.
I think God asks us to promise to replenish the planet and to pay 100% attention to our young so that they will develop character and a good conscience.
You never know when what you do in the arts means something to people, and you never really know if you've been received well.
There's really nothing like a live audience right there. When you're in a bad show, you can hear the creaks in the chairs.
The two lines from 'Roots' that stick out to me are, 'You no more in Africa. You in America now,' and what I said after Kunta escaped: 'What is it like to be free, Kunta? It must be something.'
When we look at each other, we're the same family. You don't have to see black or Latino - we're one family. That's America.
One of the most fascinating projects I worked on right after 'Officer' was 'Sadat,' a role for which Anwar Sadat's widow, Jehan, personally chose me. Although this TV miniseries won me nominations for the Golden Globe and an Emmy, strangely, it was boycotted in the Middle East.
I think more important than law is the hearts of people.
My father's best friend, Georgie Terra, was an Italian guy. The children and the cousins and nieces and nephews were children of the Mafia. Those were the children he grew up with. If you want to go to a safe neighborhood, go to where the Mafia is.
You have a bout with death, things that touch your mortality, when that happens, all that bling-bling gets thrown away because all you've got is you and God.
I was at Woodstock. In the mud.
If a role isn't different, it's not worth doing.
The Lord may not come when you want Him, but he's always going to be there on time.
