Top 90 Bernie Mac Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 2 of 2

51. “When I started in the clubs, I had to work places where didn’t nobody else want to work. I had to do clubs where street gangs were, had to do motorcycle gangs, gay balls and things of that nature.”

— Bernie Mac

52. “Jerry Weintraub, the producer, might be a pain in the ass, but he really knows how to treat his actors.”

— Bernie Mac

53. “I became the storyteller of South Side Chicago. I used an old Kiwi liquid shoe polish as a microphone. I’d go around the house interviewing everybody, telling stupid jokes, doing voices. I mimicked Sidney Poitier, Sammy Davis Jr., people on ‘Laugh-In,’ Flip Wilson.”

— Bernie Mac

54. “If I can tell someone a story that makes them bend over and laugh, that’s bigger than anything else.”

— Bernie Mac

55. “Jealousy and envy are just like anger,” she said. “The most hurt you’re doing is to yourself.”

— Bernie Mac

56. “It’s a pleasure to work with someone who is just as strong as you are.”

— Bernie Mac

57. “I’m an ordinary guy with an extraordinary job.”

— Bernie Mac

58. “Comedy has been so good to me.”

— Bernie Mac

59. “I want to play a villain – I can’t wait to play a villain.”

— Bernie Mac

60. “When I go onstage, I want to relieve your mind, your pressures.”

— Bernie Mac

61. “I know doing movies is where I need to be. That’s where my audience wants to see me.”

— Bernie Mac

62. “When I hit my 20s, I struggled to make it. I got married at 19, and my daughter, Je’Niece, was born a year later. I worked blue collar jobs during the day and comedy clubs at night, and I was earning about $25 a year doing stand-up.”

— Bernie Mac

63. “I’ve never been no superficial cat.”

— Bernie Mac

64. “I always wanted to scuba dive. I used to scuba dive undercover like black Aquaman.”

— Bernie Mac

65. “I was good at keeping my mother from crying.”

— Bernie Mac

66. “The one thing about comedy, making it become a part of you, the audience loves it, because you become part of them.”

— Bernie Mac

67. “I have so much respect for what’s funny.”

— Bernie Mac

68. “I love who I am. I love what I’ve become.”

— Bernie Mac

69. “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

70. “I was a street performer for two years.”

— Bernie Mac

71. “You can’t be a doctor if you don’t know the entire parts of the body.”

— Bernie Mac

72. “Hugs aren’t like pieces of pie. Plenty of hugs to go around.”

— Bernie Mac

73. “Black audiences are hard. They always think they’re better than you. So you got to come with a little extra to satisfy them.”

— Bernie Mac

74. “I’ve been in training for stardom.”

— Bernie Mac

75. “Bernie Mac just says what you think but are afraid to say.”

— Bernie Mac

76. “I ain’t running for office. I ain’t running for nothing.”

— Bernie Mac

77. “I’m very much disciplined because I’m more mature. When I was young I just wanted to live, I could jump, I could run, I was quick and I was relentless.”

— Bernie Mac

78. “Why I was so intrigued with Red Skelton was because he was able to make you cry and laugh and the same time. That was power.”

— Bernie Mac

79. “I don’t need a church. I carry my church with me at all times, inside my own self.”

— Bernie Mac

80. “As I got older, I got into all kinds of things in the streets – but for some reason, I never got caught up with the gangs growing up. Everybody dug me, man. I never had problems.”

— Bernie Mac

81. “The success of my comedy has been not being afraid to touch on subject matters or issues that everyone else is politically scared of.”

— Bernie Mac

82. “When you’re offstage, that’s the footprint. That’s the man God’s gonna judge.”

— Bernie Mac

83. “I’ve introduced myself with comedy, and once you’ve introduced yourself as something, that’s where people keep you. That’s where people like to hold you.”

— Bernie Mac

84. “I came from a place where there wasn’t a lot of joy.”

— Bernie Mac

85. “You know, every time it comes, every time that light comes on or every time that camera comes on, every time that microphone comes on, the Mac Man seek and destroy.”

— Bernie Mac

86. “I think a lot of TV insults the audience.”

— Bernie Mac

87. “My humor had changed from foolishness to making sense.”

— Bernie Mac

88. “The two sides of Bernie – that’s a quiet weapon that I have.”

— Bernie Mac

89. “I have Glocks, .45s, Berettas, Remingtons. I like the marksmanship and the discipline that it takes to be a gun owner. I like the machinery. Being able to take it out and clean it is even more fascinating than having the gun.”

— Bernie Mac

90. “You’re never going to see me playing a buffoon.”

— Bernie Mac

91. “I’m not afraid to fail. Sometimes when you lose, you win. Sometimes when you win, you lose.”

— Bernie Mac