Quotes by Joe Morton

The most frightening thing about playing Dick Gregory is I've never done stand-up before, and I had to learn how to be a stand-up comedian, which was a bit of a challenge.

Without mentioning any names, there was a film that was being done, and I ran into the producer on the plane. It was a book that I really, really loved, and I said, 'I'd love to be a part of this.' And they made it clear that that was not going to be possible - for no particular reason other than that there was just no part for a black person.

You don't have the opportunity to win an Emmy unless you're given the opportunity to play certain kinds of roles.

I have lots of hopes for black actors in general, whether they be on TV or on stage or in movies, and that is that we move beyond the tokenism of what it means to be black in a particular set of circumstances.

Being back on stage in New York, off-Broadway - I mean, that's an actor's dream.

With any villain, you have to see things from their point of view and understand that they think what they're doing will make the world a better place.

In the 1980s, there was no category to stick me in. 'He sounds too smart' is what I was hearing. I realized that I had to become a member of the school of what I call 'ugly acting.' Which meant I wanted to do what Dustin Hoffman did very successfully: to play character roles, but lead character roles.

If we're still talking about the same thing 40 or 50 years later, then that means we're not doing anything about it.

Acting-wise, it's always exciting to come back for a third season of any TV show that you're working on.

When it comes to certain portions of our history, we've just forgotten it all.