MARIO VAN PEEBLES

When I came out to Hollywood, I discovered the perfect place for my creative madness - Cannon Pictures.

There is definitely places in America where, if you're born into that environment, your chances of getting out are really, really limited.

When young people see movies like 'Gandhi 'or 'JFK,' there is an element of romanticization of these powerful people, and young people often feel a huge distance between their own lives and the lives of these social-change heroes. But the Panthers were flawed-up people from the streets, so it's easier to identify with them.

History is written by the winners. The books say the Indians were bad guys and the whites just needed a little land. It's like, Excuse me, let me take your car. I'm discovering it. I'm putting my flag on your windshield.

People are now looking at the world in terms of axis of evil and evil-doers and by logical extension good-doers, and that's a very polarised look at good and bad people. Reality is much more complex than that and people can be good and evil on the very same day.

My father told me you have two loves in your life: What you do and the people you're with.

I'm not in business to make money.

If you sort of treat the environment in sort of this mechanical, industrial way that there's a disconnect between man and the environment, it's very easy to treat people that way.

In some ways truth is stranger than fiction.

I went from being 'Mario who?' to 'Mario baby!

If I or any other black can deliver at the box office, I'll get a lot of work. Too many young actors, regardless of their color, try to play an attitude on camera and fail to remember their job is to fit into an entertainment.

When I came out to Hollywood, I discovered the perfect place for my creative madness - Cannon Pictures.

When you make a film that is based in reality, reality will come up all around it.

If you sort of treat the environment in sort of this mechanical, industrial way that there's a disconnect between man and the environment, it's very easy to treat people that way.

My father told me you have two loves in your life: What you do and the people you're with.

My father, Melvin van Peebles, and my mother were both very active politically when I was a kid. The first time I was allowed to stay up late was to attend a demonstration.

There is definitely places in America where, if you're born into that environment, your chances of getting out are really, really limited.

I had unusual parents. We'd been to Europe. We'd been in the theater. We were sort of like the Addams Family.

My dad always said there's four phases in an actor/director's life. There's 'Mario Who?' There's 'Get me Mario!' 'Get me a young Mario,' and 'Mario Who?'

I'm not in business to make money.

No matter what color you are, if you mentor some little boy or girl, you make a huge difference in their lives because they then model behavior that leads to success versus modeling behavior that doesn't.

I went from being 'Mario who?' to 'Mario baby!

We think birth is a miracle and death is a tragedy, but really they're flip sides of the same coin - anything born is gonna die.

When young people see movies like 'Gandhi 'or 'JFK,' there is an element of romanticization of these powerful people, and young people often feel a huge distance between their own lives and the lives of these social-change heroes. But the Panthers were flawed-up people from the streets, so it's easier to identify with them.

History is written by the winners. The books say the Indians were bad guys and the whites just needed a little land. It's like, Excuse me, let me take your car. I'm discovering it. I'm putting my flag on your windshield.

People are now looking at the world in terms of axis of evil and evil-doers and by logical extension good-doers, and that's a very polarised look at good and bad people. Reality is much more complex than that and people can be good and evil on the very same day.

In some ways truth is stranger than fiction.