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" I didn't know anything about acting, I didn't know anything about theater, but I was just an exceptional student at high school. I wanted to play ball; I'm going after a basketball scholarship and be a doctor. I got injured and my marks began to drop. "

Louis Gossett, Jr.

High School

Basketball

Doctor

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" If a role isn't different, it's not worth doing. "

" The only time I was really free was when the director said 'Action' in front of a camera or on the stage, and that's when I flew. "

" It's presumptuous for us to think we are the only beings in the cosmos. "

Louis Gossett, Jr.

Presumptuous

Think

" I was at Woodstock. In the mud. "

Louis Gossett, Jr.

Mud

Woodstock

" I was president of the schools in junior high and high school, got a scholarship to New York University, played a little basketball, and was a celebrity. "

" We started the family Bible after slavery was abolished. My great-grandmother remembered the Bible being started, which meant that she was a slave as a young girl. When she died, the Bible was at least 105 years old, so she must have been nearly 115 years old. Her daughter, my grandmother, died at 97, and her husband at 98. "

" I believe the gift of acting is a gift from God, my oath to God, and I want to make sure on a daily basis that it is honed and deeply spiritual... I want to believe that the audience believes that my acting comes from this special place. "

" I was always told that I'd have to do a movie with a white guy in order to get the money. That's the way it was. That made me feel that I should have chosen some other profession, so I could have gotten my just deserts. "

" I was down in Wilmington, Delaware, doing 'The Desk Set' with Shirley Booth. I was at the DuPont Hotel. I walked out, and there was this grill next door called the New England Grill. I loved seafood. They said very nicely, 'We don't serve colored people.' "

" I'm cancer-free. And I'm on antioxidants and acupuncture and a different diet. And I have a different outlook on life. I don't have resentment any more. It's wonderful. "

Louis Gossett, Jr.

Resentment

Wonderful

" I am so grateful that the public has given me this gift. They look at me as a person - not as a race or a color. The word for it is freedom - to be accepted as me. "

" There are beautiful words in the Bible and in our pledges and the Declaration of Independence. "

" You have a bout with death, things that touch your mortality, when that happens, all that bling-bling gets thrown away because all you've got is you and God. "

" When '12 Years a Slave' got that much attention, everyone started to copy that. That story has to be told, but there are a lot more stories to be told than slavery. "

" I can do more than anyone suspects. I pride myself on my versatility. It took 32 years of difficult parts, second leads, villains and juveniles. The Oscar changed the quality of the roles I was being offered. "

" The worst resentment that anybody can have is one you feel justified to keep. "

" Never made a million dollars from any of my 78 movies. People thought I had this fortune, which I never had. "

" I had an Oscar, an Emmy, and yet I had this big hole in my soul. "

" I was invited to play with the New York Knicks. I was never drafted, but I was invited to the rookie camp. "

" There's really nothing like a live audience right there. When you're in a bad show, you can hear the creaks in the chairs. "

" When I'm offered a role, I look at what I think I can do with it. I look to see if I can project myself into it. "

" My father's best friend, Georgie Terra, was an Italian guy. The children and the cousins and nieces and nephews were children of the Mafia. Those were the children he grew up with. If you want to go to a safe neighborhood, go to where the Mafia is. "

" Some Marine units actually use 'An Officer and a Gentleman' in their training programs. "

" We need to do whatever it takes to get our children together and pay attention to them, because that's our future. What's in the hearts and minds of our children is what's in our future. "

" Working on the ABC movie 'Don't Look Back: The Story of Leroy 'Satchel' Paige,'' which we filmed in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was a special pleasure, particularly because I'd played baseball in high school. "

" I grew up with all my cousins. The men worked, and the older women raised us - my mother, my aunt, my grandmother. My great-grandmother was the matriarch, and sometimes there were 30 of us. "

" One of my best friends while shooting 'Roots' was Vic Morrow, the guy that whips Kunta. "

" One of the most fascinating projects I worked on right after 'Officer' was 'Sadat,' a role for which Anwar Sadat's widow, Jehan, personally chose me. Although this TV miniseries won me nominations for the Golden Globe and an Emmy, strangely, it was boycotted in the Middle East. "

" My father was adopted. He grew up in the Italian household. "

Louis Gossett, Jr.

Italian

Adopted

" After the Academy Award, well, I was left with a lot of time on my hands. I thought I'd get a lot of offers - and they didn't come. "