Top 100 Charles Barkley Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Social media is where losers go to feel important.”

— Charles Barkley

2. “Sometimes that light at the end of the tunnel is a train.”

— Charles Barkley

3. “My message is simple: take control of your life.”

— Charles Barkley

4. “I like to help poor people who got no chance. If rich people don’t, who will? Not other poor people, that’s for sure.”

— Charles Barkley

5. “I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It.”

— Charles Barkley

6. “I’m not a role model.”

— Charles Barkley

7. “I can be bought. If they paid me enough, I’d work for the Klan.”

— Charles Barkley

8. “I always laugh when people ask me about rebounding techniques. I’ve got a technique. It’s called just go get the damn ball.”

— Charles Barkley

9. “I don’t know anything about Angola, but Angola’s in trouble.”

— Charles Barkley

10. “Poor people have been voting for Democrats for the last 50 years and they’re still poor.”

— Charles Barkley

11. “Curling is not a sport. I called my grandmother and told her she could win a gold medal because they have dusting in the Olympics now.”

— Charles Barkley

12. “I don’t care what people think. people are stupid.”

— Charles Barkley

13. “I read that heavy drinking is bad for your health. I decided I better stop reading.”

— Charles Barkley

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14. “People always say turn the other cheek. If you turn the other cheek, I’m gonna hit you in the other cheek too.”

— Charles Barkley

15. “The main thing to do is relax and let your talent do the work.”

— Charles Barkley

16. “If I weren’t earning $3 million a year to dunk a basketball, most people on the street would run in the other direction if they saw me coming.”

— Charles Barkley

17. “The older I get, the faster I was.”

— Charles Barkley

18. “I think the biggest problem is parents are so concerned with being friends with their kids. You’re not their friend. You’re their parent.”

— Charles Barkley

19. “My wife’s married. I’m not.”

— Charles Barkley

21. “Only poor people go to jail.”

— Charles Barkley

22. “These are my new shoes. They’re good shoes. They won’t make you rich like me, they won’t make you rebound like me, they definitely won’t make you handsome like me. They’ll only make you have shoes like me. That’s it.”

— Charles Barkley

23. “There’s no medical term for what I’ve got.”

— Charles Barkley

24. “Preseason is just a way to screw fans out of money.”

— Charles Barkley

25. “I was asked for years about being a Republican, probably because most black people are Democrats. My mother heard it once and called me and said ‘Charles, Republicans are for the rich people.’ And I said, ‘Mom, I’m rich.’”

— Charles Barkley

26. “If all babies are so cute, how the hell do we have so many ugly people in the world?”

— Charles Barkley

27. “This is why I hate white people. You guys try to turn everything into a racial issue.”

— Charles Barkley

28. “They run like deer, jump like deer and think like deer.”

— Charles Barkley

29. “It’s the kind of game that makes you go home and beat your wife.”

— Charles Barkley

30. “If you go out with a girl and they say she has a great personality, she’s ugly. If they tell you a guy works hard, he can’t play a lick. Same thing.”

— Charles Barkley

31. “I don’t believe professional athletes should be role models. I believe parents should be role models...”

— Charles Barkley

32. “You can’t start a diet in the middle of the week, that’s just stupid.”

— Charles Barkley

33. “If Michael Jordan was a damn plumber, he couldn’t get a date. Any guy got $500 million looks good.”

— Charles Barkley

34. “You got to believe in yourself. Hell, I believe I’m the best-looking guy in the world and I might be right.”

— Charles Barkley

35. “Yeah, I regret we weren’t on a higher floor.”

— Charles Barkley

36. “There’s only 5 real jobs in the world. Teacher, fireman, policeman, doctor and somebody who is in the armed service. If you don’t have one of those 5 jobs, you shouldn’t take your life that serious.”

— Charles Barkley

37. “I’m not paid to be a role model. I’m paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court.”

— Charles Barkley

38. “What does politically correct mean? If you’re fat, don’t ask me if you’re fat, because I’m gonna tell you the truth. You’re fat.”

— Charles Barkley

39. “Half Man, Half Sit-Out-The-Season.”

— Charles Barkley

40. “I’m afraid of the skeletons in my closet. I’ve got a whole cemetery full of them.”

— Charles Barkley

41. “Everybody in the world has an ego. The only difference between us is we have a reason to have an ego.”

— Charles Barkley

42. “I don’t create controversies. They’re there long before I open my mouth. I just bring them to your attention.”

— Charles Barkley

43. “If ifs were gifts, every day would be Christmas.”

— Charles Barkley

44. “I’m so sick and tired of people in the media telling us that because of the war, sports aren’t important. Fans need sports. We’d have only crime and war to watch on TV if not for sports.”

— Charles Barkley

45. “People always say he can run and he can jump. So can a deer and you wouldn’t put a deer in the game.”

— Charles Barkley

46. “I don’t hate anyone, at least not for more than 48 minutes, barring overtime.”

— Charles Barkley

47. “Hakeem couldn’t kick your ass cause you were too close, kissing his!”

— Charles Barkley

48. “When you’re black, you have to deal with so much crap in your life from other black people. It’s a dirty, dark secret; I’m glad it’s coming out.”

— Charles Barkley

49. “America is divided by economics, and we as Americans, we’ve got to do a better job of supporting poor people.”

— Charles Barkley

50. “We’re not all supposed to think alike.”

— Charles Barkley