Richard Pryor Quotes

I've had good times; I've had bad times.

Good and bad - this is the story of my life.

I've experienced the highest of highs and lowest of lows. I think to really appreciate anything you have to be at both ends of the spectrum.

Life is a collage of events, really.

Life is not going from bad to good, but it's a balance of the two that kind of goes up and down. There are bad things and there are good things.

I didn't really want to write something about my life story. I've kind of had a pretty smooth-sailing journey.

The truth is life is full of joy and full of great sorrow, but you can't have one without the other.

All lives have triumphs and tragedies, laughter and tears, and mine has been no different.

I knew that I had to write my memoirs.

That's the great paradox of living on this earth, that in the midst of great pain you can have great joy as well. If we didn't have those things we'd just be numb.

I really feel like the gift is also the curse. It's always half-and-half. Whatever brings you the most joy will also probably bring you the most pain. Always a price to pay.

I spent most of this afternoon writing a new introduction for my autobiography.

For 20 years, Simon & Schuster asked me, 'Why don't you write your autobiography?'

So you have to take the good with the bad.

An autobiography is a book a person writes about his own life and it is usually full of all sorts of boring details.

I've gone pretty high at times so I think the yin yang of that is going pretty low.

If I were to say, 'God, why me?' about the bad things, then I should have said, 'God, why me?' about the good things that happened in my life.

My life has been, I suppose, the most incredible series of highs and lows.

If you want the beautiful moments to shine, you have to contrast that with dark and gruesome moments. That's the way life is.

If you win all the time, you lose the drama in life. To make the happy moments happy, you need the sad moments too.

Life is a mixing of all kind of things: comedy and tragedy going together.

Human life is a combination of tragedy and comedy. The shapes and designs that surround us are the music accompanying this tragedy and this comedy.

I had great moments. I had not-great moments.

Sometimes I do pinch myself about the life I've had.

I have had quite the grand, interesting life.