W. Kamau Bell Quotes

I lived with this tremendous fear of failure because my father was a playwright and a director, and I think he did a couple of things as a child as an actor as well, and he... he failed, basically.

I come from very creative parents.

My dad was really complex, and I was raised by that. My mom is really bright - very book bright - and so those things collide... I learned that I could put all of that stuff together in the world of acting, and I could make a dollar at it.

I did have two dads; one was a socialist, and one was a capitalist. I really decided I would rather be a capitalist.

My mum and dad had creative jobs, but our family was a working family - so there wasn't an option of, 'Oh, when you're older, you're not going to have to work.'

I can see parts of my father in 'Kingdom' when I rage like that. I can see my father's frustrations in his life.

I was very wary of repeating my father's behaviour and did everything not to act like he did.

You either become like your parents or you become the opposite of your parents. And I like to think that I'm the opposite of my parents.

My dad was a crazy person, but some of the best qualities about me came from him.

I'm a product of this visionary mother and father.

My mother was never very famous when I was growing up, so it wasn't so difficult. It was only when I left home and went to university that she become this style icon.

When I first started pursuing acting professionally out of college, it was very much in my head that there would be comparisons with potentially both of my parents, and I found that pretty intimidating.

I'm not going to lie; having acting greats like Kamal Haasan and Sarika as parents has, in a sense, opened doors.

I am a product of my father's work.

I look like my mother but behave like my father.

I'm not interested in hiding from the fact that my parents are actors. I'm proud of them! It's very ordinary to pursue a career that your parents do, but when it's in the public eye, it becomes a complicated thing.

Phil is my father. He's a part of who I am. But I don't want to be defined by that.

I come from a very artsy family.

As soon as people heard me speak, they would compare me to my father. My siblings had the same kind of pressure.

My father was a TV scriptwriter. He would perform his dialogue out loud, while my mum transcribed it at the typewriter. So I grew up thinking that plucking characters out of the air was an extremely normal way to behave.

I've been touching instruments since the day I was born. My mother is Brazilian, and she listens to Brazilian music. My father was a musician, and I've seen pictures of him when he was in a band playing guitar and piano. He loved country music, Frank Sinatra, and stuff like that.

Annie Lee Smith was my mother's name. My father's name was George Washington Smith. I have to tell you, I got all of my attributes from them, obviously, the tangibles, the intangibles. Particularly my work ethic, my dedication.

Actually, a lot of my influences were horn players. I really liked Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane and Miles Davis - people like that. My dad had a lot of those records. So when I started playing jazz primarily, it wasn't jazz guitar that I was listening to.

I didn't know my mother was an actress until I was eight and she went back to work. At an even younger age than that, I'd wanted to be an actress, so when I saw her, I clearly remember thinking, 'This is a strange coincidence.'

My aunt Ruth Brown was a jazz musician. I got hooked on it at a young age, understanding what John Coltrane was doing playing two notes on the saxophone at the same time, which is impossible.