Melvin Van Peebles Quotes

I've done a lot of different things. I would say, it's really hard for me to say what the ultimate role would be. You look at a film if it comes to you.

Thank goodness I started getting movie roles and then television shows came along. So I was very fortunate to be able to do all three and I like all of them.

Actors rarely stay in touch with directors after they've filmed together. We go back to real life.

Everyone talks about reality TV and that there are no roles left. That's false. Years ago, there were three networks. Now there are 20 cable networks and so many ways for films to be exhibited. It's an exciting time for actors, writers, directors, and producers.

Stand-up can take you in so many different places, man. So many doors can be opened up from stand-up comedy, and the first one that was opened up for me was acting. But you can go from acting to being a TV personality to being a radio personality to being a writer to being a producer, to just being a visionary, to voiceover work.

Well I'm not much of a singer. But it's been a really nice time to do film, television, theater and have it all happening at once. That wasn't planned but it just happens.

It's a better time for actresses on TV than on film.

I've been very fortunate to be able to jump around. I just did this really wonderful film called Map of the World. That was a real, amazing, dramatic story. Then I did a movie called Company Men, a little comedy about the Bay of Pigs.

I enjoy living in L.A. This is where the work is - or at least generated from - because you fly off and do movies. It's sort of a great way to see the world.

Actors and entertainers can become parliamentarians, so why should parliamentarians not become entertainers and actors?

I'm a firm believer that you don't have to pick one career path.

Going to school in San Francisco, you're not going to meet as many people that are making films as you would if you went to film school in New York or L.A.

Obvious things like The Deer Hunter. After that happened, the scripts got better. Opportunities happened.

Every actor wants to direct and produce, but I made a conscious decision when I was in college to understand the 'business' of 'show business.'

In the business of acting, those are the actors that make the trains run on time, you know? There's nothing without them.

I would like to see fewer actors modeling, or if they're going to model to the extent that they are modeling, then I think that models should be actors.

It's been TV and a lot of independent films. I'm so happy and blessed to have all these opportunities. But I'm also working on somebody else's project.

Film sets are great fun. Film people are great people to hang around with. I don't want to run off and be distracted by other things.

When I lived in New York, there wasn't as much TV or film around. I got asked to do a couple of indie films, just based on me being from The Smashing Pumpkins and A Perfect Circle. I did a couple of indie movies from Japan and one from Canada, and I thought it was an exciting, fun thing to do. I had a great time doing it, it was just that, in New York, there really wasn't as much. My studio in New York closed, so I moved out to L.A. and just started looking into composing as another thing to do, as a musician. I like it a lot. It's fun and it's a different way of thinking about music.

Show business is like riding a bicycle - when you fall off, the best thing to do is get up, brush yourself off and get back on again.

When you add up the minutes you spend actually making a movie - the amount of time you spend actually doing your thing in front of a camera - it just isn't that much. But it's everything.

When you think about it there's never really been a realistic exposition of Hollywood, I mean - from the inside - showing Hollywood what it can do, what it has done, to people.

I'm living in Los Angeles, I'm in films and I'm on television, and I'm working with actors and telling stories. I'm living the fantasy. My worst day is a great day.

If I were in the director's chair, I would cast [Geena Davis] in something awesome every six months if I had the choice.

I'd always wanted to act, but it was a question of whether acting wanted me and whether the movies wanted me.