Quotes

[from "James Earl Jones: Voices and Silences" page 360]: My voice is for hire. My endorsement is not for hire. I will do a voice-over, but I cannot endorse without making a different kind of commitment. My politics are very personal and subjective.

If you take a villain like Thulsa Doom or Darth Vader and have fun with it, that destroys the credibility of the character.

When I read that part in the script where it said, "Luke, I am your father", I thought, "He's lying. I have to see how they carry this lie out.".

[on the Iraq war]: All people have to be prepared. If we are going to be the police, we also have to be the guardians. We can no longer play games. I was not against the war in Bosnia. I was against it taking so long. I was not against the war in Somalia. Again, it took too long, and we didn't finish the job. We should've stayed and finished the job. About this pending war, I just think we should've finished that war the first time.

[on the terrible stutter he suffered from as a young man]: One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter.

The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns, we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise, they will win and the decent people will lose.

I have to look for film or TV work. If the great roles aren't around -- and they usually aren't -- then I try to pick projects which will at least take me to interesting locations. To the best of my abilities, I give them Academy Award caliber performances. I can't put down any jobs that help me pay my bills. The problem is most of the movies and TV shows I've been in haven't given me much to do or say.

[on being the recipient of a lifetime achievement Oscar] If an actor's nightmare is being onstage buck naked and not knowing his lines, what the heck do you call this?

[on Star Wars] I am so pleased to be part of that full legend. Even as an observer. I am just an observer.