A biography for Charlie Murphyhasn’t been written yet.
“It's easy to go on television and say horrible things about somebody. And it's cowardly.”
“Don't take life for granted.”
“The whole thing with the Rick James story sketch and the Prince story sketch - I recounted my past, you know? - and that's what I was doing. It's not like I sat down and said I want to come up with a great story about Rick James. That stuff really happened.”
“As a man, if you lose your wife, it's a horrible experience, especially with kids. But when one person passes away and you're still alive, people still depend on you - that's what you have to lean on.”
“I went to jail for a year when I was 17. When I got out, my mother took me to the recruiting office, and I spent the next six years in the Navy.”
“One thing helps the other. My stand-up helps my writing; my writing helps my stand-up; my stand-up helps my acting. They're all interlocked.”
“Gangs are formed by kids who want love.”
“If the 'Chappelle's Show' had stayed on, I seriously doubt I would have developed this fast as a stand-up comedian. I probably would never have taken stand-up comedy really seriously.”
“I used to irritate people. I'd give them a hard time, and when it drove them crazy, that was funny to me.”
“I don't think I have any hobbies.”
“When I first started doing comedy, I was 42 years old, and I was the brother of one of the most celebrated comics in history who made his name in the game 20 years earlier.”
“I don't like to go to regular, big stores - I don't like to wear anything anybody else does.”
“I wake up every morning, and I am ecstatic.”
“A comic's like anybody else - he does what he does to support himself and feed his family. But if a comic says the wrong thing, there's a chance the audience will want to take you down.”
“I protected Eddie. He never had to fight, because people knew who his older brother was.”
“I'm always working, and I'm a single parent, so I don't think I have time for stuff most normal people do.”
“Nobody gave me anything.”
“I never went around saying who my brother was. Everybody else was doing that.”
“Don't take people for granted.”
“There are many styles of standup, but the comedians I like are people like Dick Gregory and Richard Pryor. Because Richard Pryor told the truth. Chris Rock. I love Chris Rock. He's funny, but he's also poignant. He's not there just to make people laugh; he's there to make people wake up, too.”