Quotes

When you're the head of the show, you really have to take care of the other actors, and you really have to do what the producers want, what the network wants, and it was fun for me, because I learned a lot getting an opportunity to do those things.

Nothing is out of our realm, because it has nothing to do with color. As Black people, we're not different from anyone else, other than the exterior.

[In 1985]: As soon as I finish one thing, there's always something else on the horizon I want to do. I don't have any intention of retiring from anything.

[In 1989]: People come up to me all the time, little kids run up to me and identify me for their parents. I say, 'George Jefferson sent you, right?' If I'm going to my car, they walk me to my car, I always keep autographed pictures to hand out, too.

[on Jackée Harry]: She is hysterically funny. As a matter of fact, she would say some things that were so outrageous or she would do something and she would have to stop and laugh herself and it would break me up, so we'd have to stop and go again.

[When Norman Lear liked to turned The Jeffersons (1975) stereotype on its ear]: I was a maid, but I wasn't Hattie McDaniel. I was a black maid to a black family. George Jefferson had worked his way out of the ghetto and into New York's East Side, although his prejudices hadn't caught up with him. The last few seasons, we banned all 'honkey' jokes completely.

[on her character Florence Johnston]: Florence was the person who was not going to take no bull from anybody, no matter how little money she made. Just because you don't have a lot of money does not mean you have to let people walk over you.

[on her on- and off-screen chemistry with Sherman Hemsley, who played George Jefferson]: Sherman is hilarious. As a matter of fact, he is so creative, our tipples and our rhythms are so much alike that when he says something, sometimes he would say to me, 'You know, Marla, I forgot my lines.' I said, 'I don't know my lines.' He said, 'Yes, you do!' I said, 'Your mind took a picture of them the first time we did.' So stop saying you don't know it, and I said, 'Anyway, you just say something and when your lips stop moving, I'll answer them.' So, once we come out, I was chewing gum and I'm chewing gum, and I'm looking at him, when he was looking at me, he forgot his lines, so I kept on chewing gum and looking at him and he kept looking at me, and the audience went hysterical. They laughed about two minutes, and in that time, he thought of his lines.

[As to how hard it was for black actresses to find meaningful roles in Hollywood, who honestly revealed the kind of roles that she like to play]: The kind of roles I would be playing now would be such as Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment (1983). Challenging reaches and stretches where you come out of one character into another.

[on becoming a producer in her own right, prior to becoming an actress]: My role is being part of the decisions made. They feel that I have the focus and that I know what project is. I am part of all the note sessions. But we all have input - not just me.

[on whom she stressed the importance of jazz in the United States]: Jazz, of course, is our heritage. Jazz is a culture, it's not a fad. It's up to us to see to it that it stays alive.

'Put it in the universe,' was her favorite saying, which I say [means] God said if you make one step, He will make two. Its the same thing. First, you have to put the idea and the thought of what you want in the universe, then you have to act on it and you have to act on it in faith.

They stopped issuing unlimited passes to the employees. Now you have to go space available and you get bumped, honey. When I get on a plane these days, I go first class.

[on Regina King]: Regina knows when we're on the set that I'm her mama. If she does something wrong, I'm going to slap her one.

Florence represents the masses and represents what working people feel in subservient roles ... Just because a person is working doesn't make him less of a person. I say what they would like to say to their bosses.

[Who said blacks must take the initiative in the neighborhood's further development]: When someone else comes in, it's going to be redeveloped for their purposes, not for yours, because it's their money.

[on her father, Bradley Kemp]: He was just wonderful, but it wasn't the same without a mother. I grew up weird-very sensitive and highly inhibited. I felt like I was born in the wrong time zone to the wrong people at the wrong place.

[on her mother Ophelia Kemp's death in 1967]: She lives through me, I mean, if cans can be recycled, why not spirits? She's much more available now than when she was on earth and I couldn't get her on the damn phone. Sometimes, I look in the mirror and I see her and start talking to her.

[on the death of The Jeffersons (1975), series' lead, Isabel Sanford, in 2004]: Isabel was our queen and that's what we called her on the show. She would come in and just light up the room and start telling stories and having everybody in stitches.

[on the death of 227 (1985), co-star, Alaina Reed-Hall in 2009]: She was just a wonderful friend. She will be sorely missed; she fought the good fight.

[Who said in 2009 about her real-life best friend's/co-star's, Alaina Reed-Hall's ex-husband, Kevin Peter Hall, who guest starred on 227 (1985)]: It was a wonderful segment because we had [guest star] Luther Vandross, who was also a friend of Alaina's, sing; and we had the same minister who performed the actual wedding.

When I saw people looting. I, like everybody else, said, 'It's like a bunch of mad dogs.'

[In 2009]: That massage was one of the best parts of the trip.

[In 1988]: When you're busy doing, you don't have time to talk. You don't have time to say, 'I can't.' You've got to answer the next phone call!

[In 2008]: I never thought I was a great mom. I always worked. I fell in love with my children as they got older. When they were teenagers, I was the mom for the neighborhood. I realize now I should've been holding them. I didn't feel like they needed me. I felt anybody who gave them a bottle or changed their diapers was fine. But as they got older, I related to them more and they related to me. Then I became the mom who baked the cookies.

[on her stroke and aneurysm in 2006]: I had a small aneurysm and a stroke as a result of the surgery. Fortunately, I can walk and talk and do all those things. God has been really good to me.

[In 1992]: I said, 'Don't let your child see you stealing.' And she said, 'I have enough dignity left to appreciate what you're saying, but I ain't got no food. We ain't got nothing.' I had to stop and think about that.

[In 2010]: You can't ad-lib, because the camera needs to know what you're going to say, so that they can be there, you will be talking and you will be on-camera.

[If she and the rest of her 227 (1985) would like to see their own characters differently]: On the show, we like to see done differently, and some we're just fine. But then, it's always something.

[on the cancelation of 227 (1985)]: 227 ended, we did five seasons, of course, you have enough for the reruns and for syndication. We would've gone another season, I think some of the actors were unhappy and I was not able to convince them, and so, I don't think the network would want to keep the show, now that's what I think happened, so, we didn't pick it up.

[on Sherman Hemsley]: Well, in real-life he was an introvert and on the show he was an extrovert. He was very shy, really sensitive and spiritual. He did not like to call Franklin [Tom Willis] a honky. He finally asked [the producers] to please take that out. He said, 'We're friends now. Why am I still calling him a honky?' So, they finally took that out.

[If she needed to go back to The Jeffersons (1975), just in case if Checking In (1981) was not a ratings winner, fortunately, she did]: I have in my contract that if anything goes wrong, I will be back. I made sure of that.

[In 1981]: We blacks have a history of confusing service with servitude, primarily because it was the route we had to take rather than elected to take. So, our mothers, when they had children, would try to encourage them to go to school telling them to learn something so they won't be cleaning, scrubbing somebody's floors and cleaning somebody's house.

[on her popularity while playing the fifty-something Mary Jenkins on 227]: What we're coming to is less offensive humor. I call it situation humor rather than written jokes with punchlines of offensive humor. You can't beat life [for providing funny situations]. I'm not a comedian. The more serious I am, the funnier the situation is. If you really deal with truth, you get humor.

[In 1986]: I fell in love with my children as they got older. As they got older, I related to them more and they related to me.

[When asked if there was a backstage feud between her and ex-227 (1985) co-star, Jackée Harry]: That was never a feud. That's about people wanting to create controversy. I mean people might play that to a little bit, thinking that's the way you build things. I just never was a fan of that approach.

I'd get off from Jefferson's and come right up 6th Street, zoom around the corner, and I'd be sitting at my desk at United Airlines. 'Good Evening, United Airlines, may I help you?' Sometimes, people would say, 'your voice sounds familiar.'... Then I decided that if you only stretch one leg, you can't go very far, you've got to take both legs with you. I decided to give it a shot. And of course, I wasn't sorry.

[on the death of Sherman Hemsley]: Sherman was one of the most generous co-stars I have ever worked with. He happily set me up so that I could slam him, and I did the same for him. I shall miss him deeply.

[after the death of Sherman Hemsley in 2012] Just working with him is a joy. Only he could do the walk that he does, and only he could bring the humor that he brought.

[2012] Everything must change and you do what you can with the changes that are made. You can't stop it. You can't fight it. Everybody tries to go back to yesterday, but you can't go back to yesterday. The only time there is, is now. So you have to stay in the now and you have to not judge so I don't judge it. Somebody's dream is coming true and I applaud them. My dreams came true and they applauded me. So things have changed. They cannot be the way they were.

[Who responded in 2015 about another favorite role besides playing Florence Johnston]: I would have to say that was my favorite and '227' was next. We have some fans that favor '227' over 'The Jeffersons,' especially younger people, and some that favor 'The Jeffersons.' But 'The Jeffersons' actually has never stopped running, so now we have a whole new audience. Little children! I was doing 'The Hughleys' and the two children that were my grandchildren on the show, they came running in one day saying 'we saw you, we saw you!' They had seen a rerun of 'The Jeffersons.' I was in a department store and a Caucasian man walked up to me and he said 'my son recognized you.' His son was three-years-old. I said, 'Are you staying up late? What time do you go to bed?' Because we were on at night then. We have people today that say 'I watch you every week.' They're watching 'The Jeffersons' faithfully because they don't like what else is on television.

[on being 83]: No, I'm 30. Born in '31. You do the math and don't tell me. I really live that. If I go to the hospital or the doctor - I'm 30. They ask me for my birth date, I put my birth date down. Then they ask me for my age, so I put 30. Because when people tell their age they start seeing themselves as that. I do not see 83 in my life. I don't know what that is. People start saying 'I'm old' and they start acting old and next thing you know they're gone. Or they stop living, they stop dreaming, they stop doing anything. My thing is that it's never too late if you're still breathing. I'm still vertical and I'm still on this side of the grass. And I'm still 30, so there's no excuse. I can do anything I want to do because it's never too late.

[In 2015]: I would describe myself as sensitive, caring and considerate when it comes to other people's feelings, so I can't be like all the sassy characters in real life unless the script calls for it.

[When asked if she played anything of her two actual characters on television]: Yes, Florence was like my Aunt and Grandmother so I lived it. She came easy to me so I'm like Florence in giving smart answers, but I was also shy so I wouldn't have dared to say some of the things Florence said.I prefer to do whatever I can do at the moment. Whoever's hiring me at the moment...that's what I'm supposed to do. My favorite is Drama. I'm doing that now (on Scandal), but also still doing Comedy on Hot in Cleveland.

You know, you can't please all the people all the time.

[When felt if Sherman Hemsley had stopped calling Franklin Cover names, off-camera]: Sherman [at some point] didn't like calling Tom 'a honky.' He said, 'We had resolved from that. That was fine, the first two or three years; but now, we're friends. I don't want to be called him 'a honky.' So, that's not funny anymore to me, and they stopped writing that.

[In 2016]: If you only stretch one leg, you can't go very far. You've got to take both legs with you.

If you hold your hand closed nothing can get out, but nothing can get in.