I don't like popcorn, and I think it's so annoying when people have popcorn in the theaters. That is the loudest food.
— Tyler Perry
As a member of the Feeding America Entertainment Council, I recognize our mission to spread the word and rally the country in the fight to end hunger.
Macaroni and cheese was my mother's special dish. She'd also make jambalaya and dirty rice and bake a ham that would be incredible. And greens. But if you were looking for vegetables and healthy things, there weren't a lot of those.
Madea is a cross between my mother and my aunt. She's the type of grandmother that was on every corner when I was growing up.
I'm trying to conquer swimming. I'm getting there. I've gotta conquer it. I had a fear of drowning and tunnels and flying. I started flying and got my pilot's license, so I conquered that. Now, I'm onto swimming and tunnels.
I had one request when I started doing the plays. My prayer was, 'God, let me do well enough to be able to take care of my mother.' I was able to do that 'til the day she died because of my audience.
I haven't read a book in a very, very long time because, when I'm writing, I don't like to see other people's work. I don't want to see something great and not be able to use it, and I don't want to have any subconscious influences.
What I've been able to do with my character, Madea, and the other characters, with the jokes, is use it as an anesthetic to get to the heart and soul of real issues. And what I've found on stage over the years is that, while making people laugh, I can drop in pearls of wisdom.
I try to write from a point of view with my faith being always present and always there. don't want to write characters where everyone is saved. So this Madea character for me is not saved.
For me, there is a guiding compass that just lives inside of me. Every time I've gone against it, something bad has happened. As long as I stay in line and honor it, it has really been life changing.
I don't have a writer's room. I write all the shows myself. Ninety-one episodes a season, I'm sitting there at the computer writing and writing and writing because I want the voice to be authentic so that the audience is hearing from me and not other writers.
I've been trying to learn to ski for years, but there's something about being 6-foot-5 and falling that's not appealing.
If you look at everything I do - even in 'Boo!' there's a message, and it's always 'faith, family, forgiveness.' That's the greatest gift that I've been given. I can get a message to the very people I grew up with, the millions who love what I do.
I knew that love was around. I truly believe my mother loved me. But feeling it all the time? I didn't.
People see truth in my films. That's what they react to, and that's what they relate to.
The thing about using other people's money is they're going to set the rules.
I don't do divas. I don't do entourages. I don't do the Hollywood crap.
I don't just do a movie to do a movie. Of course I want to amuse people, but some of Madea's greatest moments are when she gets to talk about child rearing and bullying and all kinds of things like that.
When I was a kid, I had asthma, so I would have to take cod liver oil all the time. So anything fishy that reminds me of that taste, I can't eat. I love Chilean sea bass because I don't taste it there. But salmon? No, no, no.
I love a good breakfast - grits and eggs, French toast, turkey bacon. My grandmother on my father's side used to make tea cakes, and her breakfasts were unbelievable. There was fresh ham, and she would go out to the yard to get fresh eggs. She lived in rural Louisiana, and we'd spend summers with her.
I don't want to leave this planet until I achieve everything that I was put here to do.
Norman Lear is my all-time, ultimate hero. He's an amazing man. That's one person I'm looking forward to meeting. What he did, with shows and sitcoms, he's my hero.
I've been on 'Oprah' a dozen times, and cried once.
If you haven't forgiven someone, it does not hurt that person. They're sleeping at night. You're holding onto that, and all the damage is being done to you internally.
The idea of Christ's love for us all is inspiring to me.
I'm not interested in doing 'Star Wars.' It's an amazing movie, but that's not my gift. I tell the stories that I tell that relate to the people who love what I do. That is the place and the path that I know I am supposed to be on. The minute I try and go do something else, it will be amazing to watch how quickly that don't work.
I'm not a social media person; I don't know what's going on unless somebody tells me.
Very early on, when I started doing these plays and live shows, I would travel from city to city, and there were a million shows out there... so I wanted to step out among it, and I started putting my name above the title.
I am an architect at heart. I designed every home I've ever had, plus my studio.
My family never went to a restaurant together; we never went to the movies together. Vacation, we never did that.
I remember being a kid and praying in the hell of my house to have somebody love me and somebody that I could love.
When black women are down with you and in your corner, you have an ally that will move Heaven and Earth.
All my life I've tried to hide my height. I was taller than everybody else and stood out, so I would slouch and try to hide it.
I want to own a network. I want to own a network where you can turn it on with your family all day long and get positive reinforcement.
I definitely do not like Halloween. I don't like masks, creepy clowns, dark things, goblins or witches. They're not just my thing.
I have very simple tastes. An ex-girlfriend used to tell me I have the palate of a kid because there are only five or six foods that I love. And if you rotate them on a regular basis, that's all I need to eat - like arugula, spinach, and grilled chicken.
There's this great thing called the 'Chitlin' Circuit,' which I started my shows on and back in the day when, you know, Ray Charles and Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington, they couldn't get into white establishments, so they went on this circuit and toured. They were huge stars in their own community, you know, and that's pretty much my same story.
In order to have the success with 'Empire,' you have to have Fox; you have to have huge P&A. You have to have huge budgets for the show. I'm pretty confident that the budget of 'Empire' is six times what I'm spending on 'Have And Have Nots.'
Being on the 'Alex Cross' set, and watching and learning about and paying attention to everything that was going on there, I realized, 'Here is a moment for me to learn.'
Developing a good work ethic is key. Apply yourself at whatever you do, whether you're a janitor or taking your first summer job, because that work ethic will be reflected in everything you do in life.
I've always believed in God, from the time I was very, very young. I always knew there was something with me, not necessarily knowing what to call it.
The heart of who I am as a person and as a man is forgiveness, after forgiving my father for a lot of things that were done when I was child.
If you look at 'The Have and the Have Nots,' I didn't want to write a show where everyone is great and wonderful and perfect. I wanted to write it so that you're not really sure who the haves are. You look at Hanna, and you see that she doesn't have much, but she has great faith.
Having my son has changed so much of what I dream about. It used to be about business, business, what's the next deal? What's the next movie? Now it's about him.
Seven years after my mother's passing, I still reach for the phone for a split second to call her. We spoke every day.
I have a fear of tubes and tunnels. Going through any tunnel causes me great anxiety.
Did you know you can't say 'Jesus' in a sitcom? They told me that, and I was like, You gotta be kiddin' me. If you don't want my God here, you don't want me here either.
There are a lot of people who have dreams, goals, and hopes, but there aren't a lot who get to see them realized.
I thank God I didn't become successful until I was older.
After Obama became president, I realized that black people could not have put him in the White House - it had to be a collective effort of everybody in the country.
