Whoopi Goldberg
My family is Jewish, Buddhist, Baptist and Catholic. I don't believe in man-made religions.Collection: Family
We're born with success. It is only others who point out our failures, and what they attribute to us as failure.Collection: Success
I don't have pet peeves; I have whole kennels of irritation.Collection: Pet
I am an artist, art has no color and no sex.Collection: Art
You know, be an actor because you love to act. Don't be an actor because you think you're going to get famous, because that's luck.Collection: Famous
I used my imagination to make the grass whatever color I wanted it to be.Collection: Imagination
Sitting at the table during Color Purple and looking up and suddenly realizing I was acting in front of Steven Spielberg, was pretty cool. It was pretty good.Collection: Cool
When you are kind to someone in trouble, you hope they'll remember and be kind to someone else. And it'll become like a wildfire.Collection: Hope
I'm fighting the label of 'Black' actress simply because it's very limiting in people's eyes, especially people who are making movies.Collection: Movies
Normal is nothing more than a cycle on a washing machine.
I am the American Dream. I am the epitome of what the American Dream basically said. It said you could come from anywhere and be anything you want in this country. That's exactly what I've done.
That's the thing about Mother Nature, she really doesn't care what economic bracket you're in.
An actress can only play a woman. I'm an actor, I can play anything.
Normal is in the eye of the beholder.
I don't really view communism as a bad thing.
I am where I am because I believe in all possibilities.
Just call me black, if you want to call me anything.
If I was doing a talk show, I would do the kind of show that comes on just once a month, with amazing guests.
It bums me out tremendously what the church has become, and if it's got me bummed, imagine what Jesus Christ must be feeling.
I don't look like Halle Berry. But chances are she's going to end up looking like me.
Most of all, I dislike this idea nowadays that if you're a black person in America, then you must be called African-American. Listen, I've visited Africa, and I've got news for everyone: I'm not an African.
I grew up in a time when it would never have occurred to anyone to tell me there was anything I couldn't do.
Born ham, that's basically me.
Things happen to you out of luck, and if you get to stick around it's because you're talented.
You've got to vote for someone. It's a shame, but it's got to be done.
And I don't believe that I have to stay on one side of the fence or the other. I don't believe that there is any good career move or bad career move. I believe there are only the things that make me happy.
All I really want to do is just keep acting, and some of it will stink, and some of it will be really good, and maybe when I'm 85 and presenting an Oscar like Bette Davis did, I can look back and say, 'It was okay, I did all right.'
Everything for me is visual. That's just how my head works.
I think the idea that you know who your inner self is on a daily basis, because... you know. What's good for you 25 years ago may not be good for you now. So, to keep in touch with that, I think that's the first ingredient for success. Because if you're a successful human being, everything else is gravy, I think.
If every American donated five hours a week, it would equal the labor of 20 million full-time volunteers.
For some reason, all artists have self-esteem issues.
It's being willing to walk away that gives you strength and power - if you're willing to accept the consequences of doing what you want to do.
When I started, I knew I didn't fit any visual that anyone was going to lie down and take their clothes off about. Work doesn't come to me; I go out and look for it.
The art of acting is to be other than what you are.
I want Carl Sagan to explain the sky to me.
When I listen to these women, it makes what I thought were my hard knocks feel like little nudges.
The Africans know I'm not an African. I'm an American.
I'm a big old egotistical baby and that's okay. I can accept it.
Actors have no color. That's the art form.
I'm as American as Chevrolet.
When I was doing ensemble theater and comedy work, I felt I had some talents. But when I started doing my shows in Berkeley and found that I could be funny on my own, I was shocked.
I don't have to be bam, bam, bam, funny when I'm working. I can tell stories, and there's some funny in them.
There are roles I am never considered for. Meryl Streep roles, let's say. Why not? I really wanted to do 'Ironweed,' for example, because the depression era in this country was one of the best for multiracial people, because everybody was poor. Everybody lived in the tents, and under buildings, and under gratings, together.
I have the strangest time to get cast in anything. 'Ghost' was the same thing. Six months I had to wait for them to decide they had seen everybody possible. Why not? What limits me? I'm black? Oh, am I black?
We're here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.Collection: Motivational
In the dark times, if you have something to hold on to, which is yourself, you'll survive.Collection: Inspirational
If you don't look out for others, who will look out for you?Collection: Looks
You have to believe in yourself in spite of what other people believe.Collection: Self Esteem
When I was nine years old, Star Trek came on, I looked at it and I went screaming through the house, 'Come here, mum, everybody, come quick, come quick, there's a black lady on television and she ain't no maid!' I knew right then and there I could be anything I wanted to be.Collection: Stars
I fear waking up one morning and finding out my life was all for nothing. We're here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark. When you're kind to someone in trouble, you hope they remember and are kind to someone else and so on. Soon it will be like a wildfire.Collection: Life