As a bookish child in Calcutta I used to thrill to the adventures of bad girls whose pursuit of happiness swept them outside the bounds of social decency. Tess of the d'Urbervilles Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina lived large in my imagination. The naughty girls of Hollywood films flirted and knew how to drive.

Too often the great decisions are originated and given form in bodies made up wholly of men or so completely dominated by them that whatever of special value women have to offer is shunted aside without expression.

I had three points I wanted to make: That not everybody in Hollywood is on the left that Obama has broken a lot of the promises he made when he took office and that the people should feel free to get rid of any politician who's not doing a good job. But I didn't make up my mind exactly what I was going to say until I said it.

I don't know if high society is different in other cities but in Hollywood important people can't stand to be invited someplace that isn't full of other important people. They don't mind a few unfamous people being present because they make good listeners.

There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good.

Hollywood films have become a cesspool of formula and it's up to us to try to change it... I feel like a preacher! But it's really true. I feel personally responsible for the future of American cinema. Me personally.

Hollywood has its own way of telling stories. I was just telling stories that I was familiar with. And it's what I want to do in the future: I want to take my audio cinema and put it on the screen.

You know what? I never really factor Hollywood into anything. I'm a black actor so I can't really control what Hollywood thinks. I gotta go do my thing and my jokes have got to be funny. Whatever I do has got to be great.

Hollywood's just not funny.

Here in Hollywood you can actually get a marriage license printed on an Etch-A-Sketch.

In Hollywood a marriage is a success if it outlasts milk.

Love is like the wild rose-briar Friendship like the holly-tree. The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms but which will bloom most constantly?

Creative freedom is an imperative for me but it doesn't really exist in a Hollywood game.

Working with David Cronenberg or Darren Aronofsky or even Steven Soderbergh isn't really like a typical Hollywood movie. These are true artists and have a certain amount of freedom when they work and they're more like independent filmmakers making their way through big studios.

Man cannot be free if he does not know that he is subject to necessity because his freedom is always won in his never wholly successful attempts to liberate himself from necessity.

Personal identity seems like it's just such an American archetype from Holly Golightly re-inventing herself in 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' to Jay Gatsby in 'The Great Gatsby.' It seems like the sort of archetypal American issue. If you're given the freedom to be anything or be anyone what do you do with it?

It's said in Hollywood that you should always forgive your enemies - because you never know when you'll have to work with them.

For a good workout I go to At One Fitness in North Hollywood where my trainer Jon Allsop puts me through it all. I like it because it's a small gym and I've known the people for a long time. Jon will have me do cross-training where I'll lift weights jump rope throw around a medicine ball and I never get to stop.

If the Indian people want stories written about themselves how they want them told they are going to have to make them they're going to have to finance them. If you let Hollywood do it Hollywood is going to get it wrong most of the time.

The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.

Practically everyone in Hollywood has a neighbor who's been famous wants to be famous is famous has been married to someone famous worked with someone famous slept with someone famous been blackmailed by someone famous.

When you reach a certain status in Hollywood you have to play a lot of games to stay in the limelight. It becomes more about being famous than being an actor.

Of course Hollywood is still making some excellent pictures which reflect the great artistry that made Hollywood famous throughout the world but these films are exceptions judging from box office returns and press reviews.

Few if any teenagers can relate to getting up for school and finding famous comics like Pryor and Williams hanging out in your living room after a hard night of partying. But that's Hollywood.