Billy Dee Williams

“I take very good care of myself, and I've still got a lot of things I need and want to do - and I am still cute. Retiring seems like such a remote thing to me. The whole idea of it.”

“Jazz is very much a part of my life. I work with the Thelonious Monk Institute and do the artwork for their program every year.”

“For myself, if I'm trying to obtain a certain longevity in my career, to establish myself as a certain kind of star, I don't want that black exploitation image.”

“I tend to approach characters not based on ethnicity but on some unique individual qualities, and I've set my whole life that way. I don't want any sort of limitations imposed on my work. If you truly want to be a creative person, you can't limit yourself.”

“Right before 'Brian's Song' there was a period when I was very despondent, broke, depressed; my first marriage was on the rocks. The role of Gale Sayers had been cast with Lou Gossett, and then he hurt himself playing basketball. I was called in to read for the role. I was their last choice, and I knew it.”

“I love the Mexican muralists - like Rivera, Orozco - and the music of Walter Benton. They gave you a sense that reality was much more than life.”

“Oh, I paint all the time.”

“I don't want to sound too carried away, but from what I've seen, 'Bingo Long' is going to be a big one. A classic.”

“If anything, I've seen myself as the full spectrum of colors, and to be faced with not being able to do something just because I'm of a particular race has been something that I've always found very difficult - even today.”

“I think I'm a good father. As a parent, you have the responsibility to create a foundation for your children so that they can meet all the challenges.”

“Sometimes a true original doesn't need to change a thing.”

“I think of film when I paint. Even the luminosity that I always keep working for is really about film. But my idea is not to paint paintings that will decorate somebody's house.”

“Originally I planned on starting a teapot collection. I really like them.”

“The world moves fast, but change isn't always a good thing when you got it right the first time around.”

“I tell my son Corey that the greatest teacher is the teacher who says, 'Don't follow me; follow yourself. Because within you there is that kingdom, that life, that force.'”

“I always admired my father because he was a man that never put on any airs, you know. And I always tried to be that kind of person.”

“It was a time after 'Lady Sings the Blues' and 'Mahogany' and all those romantic movies: I became this romantic figure on the street in a very special way.”

“I did something that no brown-skinned man in the movie industry ever did. I made a brown-skinned man look very romantic - a matinee idol. If you think about it, what I introduced is historical because it had never happened before, and it hasn't happened since - not on that level.”

“Actually, I believe in everything, including astrology and tarot cards. All of it is just another way for people to try and tighten the link to the spirits in our universe. I believe it exists for all people.”

“The only thing that said 'Lando Calrissian' was ethnic was his looks.”