EDDIE MURPHY

I think I have enough of a sense to know what works for me and what doesn't, without going into some big thing and analyzing what I do. I'm in a position that allows me to do what I want to do, and I do it.

I'm relaxed about my career. I've been making movies for over 20 years, so I've earned at least the right to relax.

I leave my house all the time! But I'm not at all the Hollywood parties. I'm grown, and where else am I supposed to be? I'm supposed to be home.

I started out as a stand-up comedian. And that's what I'm most comfortable doing.

I started out as an impressionist and that's all about observing - how people move, their voice quality, their attitudes and quirks.

If you're involved in with something that's original, you know, you'll always go back and try to rehash it.

I'd like to produce, direct, write, score, and star in a film in exactly the way Chaplin did. I'll do that before I'm thirty.

After all these years, I've done well and I'm cool. I feel comfortable in my skin, I've saved some paper, everybody's healthy, my kids are beautiful and smart, doing different things, it's all good.

I haven't read a newspaper in 20 years. I don't look at the computer or anything. You have to have a filter on what you let in.

I only want to do what I really want to do; otherwise, I'm content to sit here and play my guitar all day.

In the original script, my character was a basketball player rather than a boxer. I didn't think I could pull that off. I'm a little short to be a basketball player!

I'm 42 and the age of a guy who has kids, so I guess I'm playing right where I'm supposed to be. I'm comfortable with that, but in the same breath I'd do something edgy. If someone came to me and offered me an edgy and funny story, then I'd do it.

Making movies is time-consuming and it's boring. You spend most of your time waiting between takes. It's like a big machine that moves slowly.

Ultimately, when I go back to the stage, I want to be able to do everything. I want to be able to do music and comedy and all that stuff; that's what all this stuff is leading to.

I keep telling people I'll make movies until I'm fifty and then I'll go and do something else. I'm going to be a professional gentleman of leisure.

I don't think more concentration is required for Robert De Niro to do what he does as for Jim Carrey to do what he does.

I've made 30 movies and for the most part my movies work. In a business where success is an exception and not the rule, I've mostly been successful.

I'm in a position that allows me to do what I want to do, and I do it.

My first concert makes me sound like a real old man. My very first concert was Jackie Wilson.

I'm the artist when I'm doing music that I am when I'm acting. I'm everything.

If I don't die in a plane crash or something, this country has a rare opportunity to watch a great talent grow.

Growing up, I liked all the stuff that everyone else was listening to, like Motown, but the biggest group of all was The Beatles.

The economy in Ireland has been rampaging ahead for the last 15 years. Barring an international, political or natural catastrophe, things can only get better for the Irish.

I've always had confidence. It came because I have lots of initiative. I wanted to make something of myself.

There's this little box that African-American actors have to work in, in the first place, and I was able to rise above that box. I could have done a bunch of movies where I stayed as the Axel Foley or Reggie Hammond persona. But I didn't want to be doing the same thing all the time. Every now and then, you crash and burn, but that's part of it.