Top 100 Cosby Quotes
#1. Bill Cosby is one of America's most successful black performers.
Renee Montagne
#2. When I was a kid I went and saw Bill Cosby with my dad, and I remember sitting there and laughing so hard.
Dave Coulier
#3. Bill Cosby is a famous black guy who has a bully pulpit the size of the world; it's global. He puts his colossal foot on the vulnerable necks of poor people, and as a result of that, we don't have a balanced conversation.
Michael Eric Dyson
#4. But there's a huge blessing that comes from being a part of a show like 'The Cosby Show' that sets such a high standard of quality - it touched so many people on so many different levels.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner
#5. Remember that Cosby show where he harrassed the children? Well I put on a little suit and because I am so small they invited me on but nobody was laughing at my jokes. I guess I'm just, too, particularly smart for them.
Thom Yorke
#6. I think Mr. Cosby has always been very much an activist and a big proponent of African-American pride. That's how 'The Cosby Show' came about. I think in his older years, he has gotten a lot more direct and vocal about it. But I think he only wants the best for all of us.
Keshia Knight Pulliam
#7. I want to just at least make it weird for you to watch Cosby Show reruns.
Hannibal Buress
#9. I want people to say at the end of my day, you know, like I used to say about Sidney Poitier and James Cagney and Joan Crawford and Red Skelton and those guys and Bill Cosby. They did quality and substance. You always remember them.
Bernie Mac
#10. It's such an honor to receive the Mark Twain Prize. To get the same award that has been given to people like Bill Cosby, Tina Fey and Will Ferrell, it really makes me wonder ... why didn't I get this sooner?
Ellen DeGeneres
#11. The Cosby years were a major part of my life, but it is the past; I don't really concentrate on it.
Lisa Bonet
#12. I wanted to shove her typewriter on the floor. I hated it and I hated her. I wanted to be a Cosby.
Augusten Burroughs
#13. I always love watching those natural actors like Bill Cosby, Raven-Symone and Shia LaBeouf - just effortless actors.
Jacob Latimore
#14. I think it was Cosby who also said to me, 'If only 2 percent of the world thinks you're funny, you'll still fill stadiums for the rest of your life.'
Joan Rivers
#15. The comedians I liked were Bill Cosby and Steven Wright, like just always as a comedic actor. I always liked Gary Larson, who's really funny for a cartoonist, obviously.
Demetri Martin
#16. Growing up, I loved Bill Cosby and Bob Newhart. They are a big reason I'm a storyteller because they are two of the best.
Henry Cho
#17. We need to have Bill Cosby month in Philadelphia.
Chaka Fattah
#18. You could feel America starting to ease up a little bit on racism, against blacks in certain pockets, and then suddenly The Cosby Show bubbled up and it was the right time for it.
Adam McKay
#19. There's a rumor that NBC is going to have Tom Brokaw fill in temporarily as the NBC News anchor. When asked why, a network spokesperson said, 'Because the only other NBC person we have is Bill Cosby.'
Conan O'Brien
#20. I use the exercise room early, because I don't want to get on the treadmill and everyone's going 'Oh, Bill Cosby,' and then they come around to see how fast I'm walking, and it becomes very competitive.
Bill Cosby
#21. I told personal stories the way [Bill] Cosby would spin a yarn for ten minutes. I think in hindsight it works better as a long story than as a condensed monologue.
Ed Helms
#22. Tons of comedians have said, 'I grew up learning from Bill Cosby. He's great.' But that respect doesn't mean much to the young people. They like their ginger ale with hot sauce.
Bill Cosby
#23. Bill Cosby was the first comedian I was exposed to, because he doesn't curse.
Chris Rock
#24. I'm a rap comedian the same way Bill Cosby is a jazz comedian, Cosby's laid back. I'm like, bang, bang bang, right into it.
Chris Rock
#25. I've been watching 'The Cosby Show' and 'Roseanne' a lot right now, and those work so well because they're not, like, jokey comedies; they are coming from real characters. We want our show to be like that. A family show.
Abbi Jacobson
#26. 'The Cosby Show' - no one thought there's doctors and lawyers who are married and live in brownstones! Back then no one would have thought we would have an African-American president. They would have laughed in your face.
Keshia Knight Pulliam
#27. 'The Cosby Show' made an impact on comedy, television and culture. We rejected lowering the bar.
Bill Cosby
#28. I think it's crazy that Bill Cosby has a mugshot for alleged assaults 11 years ago with no physical evidence or proof besides these womens accounts of what he did to them an entire decade later.
Jayceon Terrell Taylor
#29. Show me one guy or woman as funny as Rodney Dangerfield or as good as George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, or Joan Rivers. There are a lot of good comics out there, no doubt, but as far as the quality of the comics goes, I think what you have is a bunch of situational comics.
Chris Rock
#30. Our neighbors were so excited when a black family moved in that they got them a welcome basket with the first three seasons of The Cosby Show on DVD.
Flynn Meaney
#31. I think if a 30-year-old Bill Cosby sat on stage with a 72-year-old Bill Cosby, they would enjoy each other.
Bill Cosby
#32. Mr. Cosby wanted to do a show not about an upper-middle-class black family, but an upper-middle-class family that happened to be black. Though it sounds like semantics, they're very different approaches.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner
#33. I'm going old school. Adult comedy but you can have your kids in the room. Kind of Andy Griffith meets Bill Cosby meets Bob Newhart. Also my character isn't an idiot as all the rest of the sitcoms recently have the dad character like Homer Simpson.
Henry Cho
#34. I can't negate the theory that the Huxtables on 'The Cosby Show' may have helped pave the way for the Obama family. People enjoyed watching that black family.
Bill Cosby
#35. Telemarketers tell me I sound like Bill Cosby.
Bill Cosby
#36. When I was 16 I was fortunate enough to get Cosby and move to New York and shift my whole life. that had been my dream all along, and it came true.
Lisa Bonet
#37. I'm inspired by people who are unapologetically themselves, from Bill Cosby to Fahim Anwar. Just funny people.
Jerrod Carmichael
#38. I just liked stand-up comedy so much. I used to memorize Bill Cosby albums and other people's albums, George Carlin, Flip Wilson.
Drew Carey
#39. I burn my neck with a fondue skewer while you watch The Cosby Show on my bed.
Merritt Tierce
#40. I regret that I do not have the dignity of Ricardo Montalban, the class of Dean Martin, or the humor of Bill Cosby. I DO have the heart of a lion.
Burt Reynolds
#41. In Into the Woods, Cinderella runs from her prince, Rapunzel is thrown from a tower for her prince, and Sleeping Beauty just thought she was getting coffee with Bill Cosby.
Tina Fey
#42. I come from a time when people like Bob Newhart and Bill Cosby told stories that were devastatingly funny without being off-color.
Bill Engvall
#43. At the end of Season 1 of 'Cheers', it was the lowest rated show in all of network television ... So we turn to 'Bill Cosby'; when he came to Thursday night, he just exploded. And once the audience was there, we said, 'Hey, by the way, we also have this other great show. It's called 'Cheers'.'
Warren Littlefield
#44. I acted before I sang. And I did The Cosby Show, and things like that. But the music kind of came first. And it was a part of my essence. So I knew that I would evolve into this world.
Alicia Keys
#45. I do think it's important for black writers to show that we too can make it into the mainstream. Growing up, I didn't just watch The Cosby Show, I watched Growing Pains and Family Ties too. We can tell those stories too.
Lena Waithe
#46. People have all kinds of approaches when they come up to me. Some of them are so nervous: 'You know, Mr. Cosby, you are my biggest fan!' I am? Some of them even claim that I raised them.
Bill Cosby
#47. 'A Different World' didn't have the blazing success that 'Cosby' had, but it was on for seven seasons, and we got a lot of awards, and a lot of faces came out of that show and have had great careers.
Warren Littlefield
#48. Braxton Cosby's stories feel personal and well thought-out. I'm happy to welcome this entertaining writer to the YA science fiction field. I look forward to more of his work!
Tananarive Due
#49. When it comes to English stand-up comedy, Indians have only seen the best - Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Cosby and the like. So, when someone claims to be an English stand-up comedian in India, he'd better be very good if he's going to make a life of it.
Vir Das
#51. They sit there shouting "Don't do it." Someone told them revolution looked like the Cosby Show. A slight tug with a good lesson. Revolution is a tough struggle between what was and what needs to be.
Darnell Lamont Walker
#52. At the end of the day, I want to be part of the same conversation as Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle, Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor.
Kevin Hart
#53. I really understood a lot more about comedy after listening to Bill Hicks, who died at 32 years old. He's probably the best comedian who ever lived. Although you can't say that because of Carlin, Cosby and Pryor.
Ron White
#54. I've always liked and appreciated storytellers like Garry Shandling and Bill Cosby - more long-form comedy. So starting in San Francisco, watching all these great comics - Patton Oswalt, Dave Chappelle - you get to see them a bunch, and you go, 'Wow, this is where I need to be.'
Al Madrigal
#55. Civilization had too many rules for me, so I did my best to rewrite them. - BILL COSBY
Timothy Ferriss
#56. I had always loved comedy, and acted out Steve Martin and Bill Cosby albums with my sister for my parents on road trips and stuff, and I loved to laugh and make people laugh.
Rob Delaney
#57. 'Cosby' opened up so many people's vision to something that they had never seen before or really contemplated before and exposed them to things that were going on that were completely below their radar.
Tempestt Bledsoe
#58. If I had the gift of Jerry Seinfeld, of Bill Cosby, of Lewis Black, these instinctively brilliant comic minds, then you go that route! But you gotta know your limitations. I'm more of an actor, more of a process guy. I did Tom Snyder, just as Danny Aykroyd did on 'SNL.' I did it in the club.
Joe Piscopo
#59. Bill Cosby, you know, he's a delightful guy.
Barry Corbin
#60. Dad had a music store, and he'd often bring home comedy albums that I would listen to. I started listening to Bob Newhart and Bill Cosby, and developing taste. They really influenced my style of comedy.
Billy Crystal
#61. Working with Bill Cosby was incredible. I was lucky to be a part of that.
Tatyana Ali
#62. The accusations against Bill Cosby are a classic case of he said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said.
Unknown
#63. I learned from the guys before me - Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Richard Pryor, just to name a few. These are guys that let it all hang out. What they lived is what they took to the stage.
Kevin Hart
#64. I was fresh out of drama school and had no idea what I was doing. They hustled me along and Bill Cosby tolerated my rookie behavior. It was great. Once you have 'The Cosby Show' on your resume, you can keep going.
Michael Weatherly
#65. On a smash TV series, you make much more money than you ever can in a movie. Do you know how much more Bill Cosby will make than Spielberg? The money for successful television is unbelievable.
Lee Rich
#66. Most of black America is in housing projects, without jobs, living on welfare. And this is not the case in 'The Cosby Show,' because all the values in that household are strictly what I would call white American values.
August Wilson
#67. When I think of black television and history, I always use 'The Cosby Show' as the bar.
Wendy Raquel Robinson
#68. I've never seen 'Seinfeld', never seen 'The Cosby Show'; I just don't watch it. I saw half of 'Oprah' one time. I'd rather read.
August Wilson
#69. I don't think Michelle [Obama:] minds bein our new muse. I think she gets it. We little brown girls - drunk off The Cosby Show, sobered up by life, and a little suicidal - we need her.
Helena Andrews
#70. Nice father figure. Him and Bill Cosby.
Jim Butcher
#71. When 'The Cosby Show' came out, and everyone was up in arms about 'The Cosby Show' and that it was reflecting a world that didn't exist - but I knew black doctors. And I knew black lawyers. And I knew families that, you know, had a mother and a father and kids that were well-behaved.
Gina Prince-Bythewood
#73. I planned so well for my post-'Cosby Show' life that I don't have to make desperate acting choices that conflict with what my values.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner
#74. None of the pants ever fit me, unless I head into the Maternity section, so I buy mostly sacklike dresses and Cosby sweaters.
Lena Dunham
#75. Things were very different back in 1992. There was unrest in the Middle East, we had a gridlocked Congress, and everybody was talking about Bill Cosby.
Craig Ferguson
#77. I mean, it's not just the rappers, you know what i'm saying? People want to attack anybody that's a large figure, you know what I'm saying? They did it to [Michael] Jordan, they did it to [Mike] Tyson, they did it to Bill Cosby, you know what I'm saying? They're gonna' attack you if you on top.
The Notorious B.I.G.
#78. The removal of Bill Cosby from his cultural pedestal seems pretty complete.
Melissa Harris-Perry
#79. Eddie Murphy did '48 Hrs.' because that was the only movie offered to him. And he killed it. Bill Cosby did 'I Spy' because that was the TV show he was offered. But now, there are networks dedicated to comedy, and the Internet ... it's so easy for comedians to not do things that aren't true to them.
Jerrod Carmichael
#80. One of my favorite guys when I was young ... I've always loved Bill Cosby. I've always wanted to direct him in something.
Faizon Love
#81. I wish people would understand that comedy is an art form, and that the same thing that makes a Picasso painting is the same thing that gives Bill Cosby the ability to do an hour of comedy on his kids.
Godfrey
#82. Bill Cosby spoke out against The Simpsons and there was this kind of evangelical, right-wing sect that was against The Simpsons. Fox was a new network at the time, though, so they were going to take risks.
Eric Andre
#83. You come to my comedy show to be entertained.
Bill Cosby
#84. Public education is a good foundation on which to build a better life for each of us. And if we want to prove to these children who never made the mess in the first place that education is worth the trouble, our schools have to inspire them so they can do what they ought to do.
Bill Cosby
#85. I'm a Christian. But Muslims are misunderstood. Intentionally misunderstood. We should all be more like them.
Bill Cosby
#86. If a white man falls off a chair drunk, it's just a drunk.
If a Negro does, it's the whole damn Negro race.
Bill Cosby
#87. Criticizing is easy, art is difficult.
Bill Cosby
#88. You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it.
Bill Cosby
#89. If you know what you want, you will recognize it when you see it.
Bill Cosby
#90. The heart of marriage is memories; and if the two of you happen to have the same ones and can savor your reruns, then your marriage is a gift from the gods.
Bill Cosby
#91. I know people are tired of me not saying anything, but a guy doesn't have to answer to innuendos,
Bill Cosby
#92. You can't prove somebody is a racist unless they really come out and do the act and is found to be that.
Bill Cosby
#93. Women don't want to hear what you think. Women want to hear what they think - in a deeper voice.
Bill Cosby
#94. I can't even talk the way these people talk. 'Why you ain't?' 'Where you is?' Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.
Bill Cosby
#95. Sometimes you try to help people, and it backfires on you, and then they try to take advantage of you.
Bill Cosby
#96. You don't know what you're going to fall in love with until you're exposed to it.
Bill Cosby
#97. And to those people with no children but who think they'd like to have them some day to fulfill their lives. Remember: With fulfillment comes responsibility.
Bill Cosby
#98. Because for me it is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen in their seat, it keeps you frozen in your hole you're sitting in.
Bill Cosby
#99. I don't see much comedy in the Bible, where people are writing about funny people. It's not there.
Bill Cosby
#100. Now, Richard Pryor was unique. Many misunderstood his humor. He lit up the hallway, but they didn't understand his use of profanity. He didn't use it just to be using it; he used it in the context of his satire.
Bill Cosby
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