Eddie Murphy

“I can go to a country song, go right into it and make it sound authentic. And I think that's because of my ear as an impressionist.”

“From the very beginning, I always tried to make dialogue flow comfortably; I always did that to make it seem more authentic.”

“'Nutty Professor' was me going, 'Say what you want to say, but I can do this, and you can't, and nobody else in the town can do this.'”

“In the original script, my character was a basketball player rather than a boxer. I didn't think I could pull that off. I'm a little short to be a basketball player!”

“I've made 30 movies and for the most part my movies work. In a business where success is an exception and not the rule, I've mostly been successful.”

“I'm the artist when I'm doing music that I am when I'm acting. I'm everything.”

“Every now and then, when I think about it, I think, 'What would I even talk about onstage?' It's never been, 'I wonder if I'm funny. I wonder if I can come up with jokes.' It's more, 'What would it be like without the leather suit and the anger?'”

“I started out as an impressionist and that's all about observing - how people move, their voice quality, their attitudes and quirks.”

“If I don't die in a plane crash or something, this country has a rare opportunity to watch a great talent grow.”

“I stopped doing standup because it stopped being fun. And the reason it stopped being fun was it was harder to write - and this was before the Internet - it was harder to write new stuff. It had gotten so crazy.”

“If you interact with anyone, ultimately, all people are the same. However they're dressed, when you're in the house with a person, they're going to be a regular human being.”

“I had a band before I did standup - I've always done music. I got known for being funny, and that's how I make a living - and from acting - but I never stopped playing and producing and recording music.”

“I'm not performing anymore. I reveal myself to the audience. I reveal myself. That's the show now.”

“I'm in a position that allows me to do what I want to do, and I do it.”

“Making movies is time-consuming and it's boring. You spend most of your time waiting between takes. It's like a big machine that moves slowly.”

“I love 'Trading Places,' but 'Coming to America' has one of the things I like to do - I like the multiple characters.”

“'SNL' is part of my history. I got on the show as a kid. That's the show I got known from.”

“I love the Beatles.”

“If you're involved in with something that's original, you know, you'll always go back and try to rehash it.”

“You know why they think I'm reclusive? I don't do the Hollywood stuff. I've never been on the circuit.”