“Thank you for the tragedy. I need it for my art.”

“I have to thank Eddie Murphy, 'cause after I saw him do the Klumps [in Nutty Professor II], I said, "I'm going to try my hand at a female character." It was the brilliance of Eddie Murphy. I need to write him a check. Say thank you”

“I have no confusion in my mind about that. It was a tragedy, it was a painful experience. You say that the Congress party was involved in that, I don’t agree with that. Certainly there was violence, certainly there was tragedy.”

“Thank you, dear Sophia. From every cell in my broken body, my radiant body, I thank you. I am alive. I am free… to live… to die.”

“This grandiose tragedy that we call modern art.”

“Laughter rises out of tragedy when you need it the most, and rewards you for your courage.”

“To me, tragedy is if I'll cut my finger, that's tragedy…Comedy is if you walk into an open sewer and die.”

“As a young man, you need a kick in the ass sometimes. Thank God, I really took that to heart.”

“You needed a new pancreas. The one we bought for you frees you from a dangerous dependency.” “Thanks, but I was enjoying that dependency.”

“A tragedy need not have blood and death; it's enough that it all be filled with that majestic sadness that is the pleasure of tragedy.”