Quotes by Tyler Perry
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After Obama became president, I realized that black people could not have put him in the White House -- it had to be a collective effort of everybody in the country.

I don't do divas. I don't do entourages. I don't do the Hollywood crap.

I want to own a network. I want to own a network where you can turn it on with your family all day long and get positive reinforcement.

I don't know about marriage as much as I do know that I'd be a great father.

I look at the stories that Spike Lee tells... Great stories. Great director, great storyteller.

I want a lot of people to see my movies. More black people. More white people. I want to make that connection.

I'm not an artist. I set the camera up and tell my story.

Ever since I've been blessed with success, I've struggled a little with anonymity and even family. I've had people calling asking for money, and I have to ask them first, 'Are you working? Have you been trying to help yourself?' Then I feel like I can help.

It's a dream realized to partner with Oprah and bring scripted programming to OWN. She has accomplished so much with the network, and I'm excited to work with her to be a part of its continued growth.

I think there's something that happens at 40 where you settle into your own skin and you stop caring what people think -- you realize life is a gift from God and you want to live it to the fullest.

My mother wasn't strong like my aunt. She was just very passive.

I feel like I died as a child.

Oprah is very, very, very special to me. She's an amazing woman.

'Madea' is a Southern term. It's short for 'mother dear.' So there are a lot of Madeas out there.

You know, people at Wal-Mart are standing there with their uniforms on. I feel like I'm putting on a uniform to do a movie. I don't feel like it's dressing in drag.

My life has always been -- there's never been a middle. Either I had or I didn't. Either I was up or I was down.

We are all allowed to support whoever we'd like to in this country. That's the greatest part about being an American -- one of them, that is; you know what I mean?

The Bible says that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. I believe that. Because I've seen it all work.

You don't try to do anything that Morgan Freeman does. He was the voice of God in a movie. That's Morgan Freeman!

I think every one of us, in life, have some sort of moment that has happened that we wish we could have done differently or that we wish could have had a different outcome.

What I know about me is that, in order to lead, you also have to know how to follow.

I didn't want to be the kind of man that my father was. So I've tried, my entire life, to be the complete and utter opposite of that. And it has served not only the art well, but I think the audience well.

My first show was called 'I Know I've Been Changed' in '92. I tried to do this show for years and years. It kept failing over and over and over again. Every time I went out to do the show, nobody showed up. I was like, 'What is this about?'

I get a lot of flack from critics that my comedies are all over the place, my dramas are all over the place, they're schizophrenic -- as if I don't know that!

I think it's important to show a husband and a wife together, in a room, raising children, because you don't see that anymore.

I'm not afraid to have a character say, 'I am a Christian,' or, 'I believe in God,' because I think they represent real people on this Earth.

Forgiveness is important in families, especially when there are so many secrets that need to be healed -- for the most part, every family's got them.

I think that with everything I've done, in the end, whoever the central character is, they would find a way to forgive, because that's really important to me.

I know that there are a lot of people out there with stories far worse than mine but you, too, can make it. To those of you who have, welcome to life. I celebrate you.

I'm not sure why no one wants to admit there's a viable audience out there that believes in God and wants to see a movie with their family. The demand is there. The supply is not.

If you don't want my God here, you don't want me here either. God has been too good to me to go and try to sell out to get some money.

Tyler Perry's brand is faith, family and this whole thing that I've built, while my company, 34th Street Films, is like Disney's Touchstone. We can do anything. People don't know what to expect from me yet.

It takes a week to do a sitcom in Hollywood. I do a show a day in my studio, three or four shows a week.

What do you spend $200 million on, with a film? I can't wrap my brain around that one.

I know my audience, and they're not people that the studios know anything about.

I work three months really hard, nonstop, and then I take a month off. Then I do it all over again. I work hard but I give myself four breaks a year.

There's a huge demand for my entertainment, and I can't meet the need. So I decided to try a TV show to reach as many of my fans as possible.

There are a lot of people who have dreams, goals, and hopes, but there aren't a lot who get to see them realized.

I love to give. I've been a giver all my life.

Statistics say that I'm supposed to be in jail. And I'm not supposed to be alive.

I don't think the dreams die -- I think that people give up. I think it gets too hard.

You can never be upset with the people who forced you into your dream or up higher.

It's not an easy journey, to get to a place where you forgive people. But it is such a powerful place, because it frees you.

I definitely do not like Halloween. I don't like masks, creepy clowns, dark things, goblins or witches. They're not just my thing.

My biggest success is getting over the things that have tried to destroy and take me out of this life. Those are my biggest successes. It has nothing to do with work.

The most important thing that I learned in growing up is that forgiveness is something that, when you do it, you free yourself to move on.

My mother was truly my saving grace, because she would take me to church with her. I would see my mother smiling in the choir, and I wanted to know this God that made her so happy. If I had not had that faith in my life, I don't know where I would be right now.

I've never chased money. It's always been about what I can do to motivate and inspire people.

Everyone can relate to love, hurt, pain, learning how to forgive, needing to get over, needing the power of God in their life.

What I've learned is you treat women right.

Hollywood is finally waking up to the fact that people who go to church also go to the movies. I'm not sure what took them so long to see that or how long they'll keep it up.

You close the door on me and tell me I can't, I'm gonna find a way to get in.

When black women are down with you and in your corner, you have an ally that will move Heaven and Earth.

I love to see a woman in high-heeled shoes. There's something about the curve of the feet up the leg to the butt that's really, really wonderful, and the right pair of shoes can give you the right silhouette.

Children love their mothers. Especially with a boy child and his mother, there's a bond that's unbreakable.

I didn't have a catharsis for my childhood pain, most of us don't, and until I learned how to forgive those people and let it go, I was unhappy.

I was a very poor young black boy in New Orleans, just a face without a name, swimming in a sea of poverty trying to survive.

I've always wanted to work with Blair, and finally the timing was right. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. I think he's a hugely underrated actor in Hollywood.

I've been doing television with TBS for quite some time, and it's been a great journey.

As I experience life and go through things, that's what I write about.

My father who was there in the house, he wasn't at all a role model. And my mother, who was trying to protect me from him as best she could, she took me everywhere with her, which gave me a tremendous amount of sensitivity to the things women go through.

Don't believe the hype. I don't care how many number ones you have at the box office, I don't care how much they say you're great, don't believe it. Just stay in your lane and do what you're supposed to do.

The key to life when it gets tough is to keep moving. Just keep moving.

He who has the gold makes the rules.

Happiness for me is totally just being at peace knowing that, everything I'm doing, God is pleased with that. It's complete peace for me.