Tyler Perry Quotations

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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'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.

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.

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

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

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.

The thing about using other people's money is they're going to set the rules.

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

I remember being a kid and praying in the hell of my house to have somebody love me and somebody that I could love.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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 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 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.

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.

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 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!

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?'

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.

What I've learned is you treat women right.

He who has the gold makes the rules.

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.

All my life I've tried to hide my height. I was taller than everybody else and stood out, so I would slouch and try to hide it.

I feel like I died as a child.

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.

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

People see truth in my films. That's what they react to, and that's what they relate to.

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

I truly believe my mother loved me. But feeling it all the time? I didn't.

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

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.

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 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.

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?

I knew that love was around. I truly believe my mother loved me. But feeling it all the time? I didn't.

I thank God I didn't become successful until I was older.

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.

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

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

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.

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

What is important to me about this movie is that the stories and messages are for anyone. Anyone who needs to learn about forgiveness will enjoy it no matter who they are.

You should've heard the roar of these thousands of black people in the room. They were fired up and angry and ready to go to the movies.

It's schizophrenic -- that's how I describe it. It's all over the place, man. It's joy, it's happy, it's sad, it's everything. It's just an emotional roller coaster, you know? Even the plays themselves, you come to see them and it's like a stand-up comedic routine. I'm breaking the wall. I'm talking to the audience. It's theater. It's some of everything. It's concert.

I'm really happy for the loyalty and continued support of my fans.

I'm a child who was abused. I know the difference. I clearly know the difference. The whipping for correction and then their child abuse.

I think, you know, the people that have seen my work, I think it speaks to the possibility of getting better, and, I'm sorry, I'm still on the last caller.

I have this huge, huge fan base of people who've never seen a Broadway show, but I think it's a great introduction to what Broadway is because my shows are not that. I think that if you're getting people to go to theater then somebody should be celebrating that.

If you're black, you can't just be ordinary. All successful black people are extraordinary.

I totally give credit to God for all of this stuff, because if I had tried to make these things happen, I couldn't have. To have all these things happen has been absolutely amazing. The road that I'm on is a path that I didn't choose. It chose me. I'm just trying to walk it, and to do the best that I can to honor and respect it.

I've been pretty transparent with all that I've done. I think my work speaks a lot for who I am. So, I don't think there's a particular thing I'd like them to know.

I want to be remembered as a guy who inspired, encouraged and made people laugh.

Seeing people laugh definitely inspires me, and so does seeing people get life lessons about living better.

I don't cook, so my favorite dish to prepare is something on the takeout menu.

It's most important that you surround yourself with positivity always, and have it in your mind at all times.

If you've ever watched anything that I do, and you completely give it a chance and take the blinders off, and you'll understand that the underlying theme of everything I've done has been about forgiveness, learning to move on.

Everything that I talk about, pretty much, are things that I learned or understood over the years.

I think that people think when you have money that your problems go away and everything's solved, and it's great and wonderful. You're a perfect human being.

I haven't had a worst business decision, because I believe all things work together for good.

I think we are born into what we're supposed to learn and find out in this life.

I'm not suspicious of success, I'm suspicious of the people who want to attach themselves because of your success.

I never thought of myself as a mogul, but it's really great to be in that position.

I'm very open to fresh talent, and I love the underdog, people who have been counted out, because they come in with a different type of hunger. I'm all for the underdog, so I'd like to talk to anybody who shows up with that sort of thirst.

You will always fine jealous people.They're the ones promoting you.

Music is always around, and it helps to heighten any emotion.

When it all comes down to it, life isn't about how much we get - it's about how much we share.

The question that a lot of people ask me all the time is how did you make it? The truth be told, it was nothing but the grace of God.

Developing a good work ethic is a key [to success]. Apply yourself at whatever you do, whether you're a janitor or taking your first summer job, because that work ethic will be reflected in everything you do in life.

True love can come more than once.

Fear is a sprit that really can stop you from living.