Gregory Hines Quotes

I think everybody at some point – especially if they’ve been working their whole lives – should take time out and think about what they’ve done.

It would be like the films I’ve seen where wardens would decide to be in a jail cell for a week, to get a sense of what it would be like to be a prisoner.

I’m going to tap until I can’t: I’ll be so old, all I can do is walk out from the wings to stage center. But I’ll be there.

You know the first time I sat in the chair I felt anything but up, it was very emotional for me. I had a chair in my hotel room, a chair at rehearsal, and I was trying to spend as much time as I could in the chair.

I don’t remember not dancing. When I realized I was alive and these were my parents, and I could walk and talk, I could dance.

My roots are on the live performing stage, so while I enjoy making films and the other things that I do, when I get on stage, I feel at home; I’m comfortable.

My character had been in the chair for seven years. He had gone through his anger, depression, drug and alcohol abuse. He had gone through everything, now he was up, he was happy, he was filled with his dream.

Once I got to be about twenty-five, I got interested in the music of the time. I started smokin’ dope, I started drinking, I started slowing down and trying to find myself. I didn’t want to work in nightclubs.

I read the script, and I knew it was a good part. It was written for a white actor. That’s what I’m up against – I have to try to make roles happen for me that aren’t written black.

It turned out to be exactly that, but more challenging emotionally. I looked at it in a more physical way, having to act in a chair and move around. But it really was more emotionally challenging.

I can remember feeling very angry, and saying no! I can do it myself! From that point of view it was very emotional for me to get myself to the point to sit in the chair and be ‘up’.

They were very generous with me. Everybody was willing to talk about their particular accident, what they had to deal with and how they got back in touch with their competitors’ spirit.

My father has always been my hero.