Top 60 Malcolm Quotes

People sometimes forget all the films that we’ve done. They remember the likes of ‘Malcolm X’ and ‘Do the Right Thing.’ But I’ve been working since 1986. From the beginning, I was determined to not just be a flash in the pan. I’ve got to keep up with Woody Allen. He’s lapping me.

Malcolm X made me very strong at a time I needed to understand what I was angry about. He had peace in his heart. He exerted a big influence on me.

It’s much easier to talk about racism when you‘re able to use mutants as a metaphor. People would much rather talk about Charles Xavier and Magneto than they would about Martin Luther King or Malcolm X.

People kind of have a misconception, because when someone calls me Theo and I correct them, say, ‘No, my name is Malcolm,’ they think I have an attitude about it and I don’t want to be associated with the show.

Not that I regret saying what I believed to be the truth, but I regret anything that I might have written or spoken that could have been used in a way to help to foster that atmosphere out of which came the loss of life of Brother Malcolm.

I was making a film on Muhammad Ali in 1964, and I went to Miami to film everything around the fight for the world championship with Sonny Liston. I had the good luck of flying down to Miami, and there was one empty seat, and the guy sitting next to this empty seat was Malcolm X.

My influences in this world have always been Crazy Horse and Malcolm X, my overall influences. But I was influenced by rock n’ roll, blues, and country music. I was influenced by singers.

The man who buried Malcolm X – my Muslim imam, priest – he, after I got beat up by police… came to me, and he said, ‘You don’t need this American name.’ And I was susceptible to it at the time because, God knows, I had just gotten whipped near to death. So he gave me an Arab name; he gave me the name Amir Barakat.

I met Malcolm the month before he was killed. He deeply changed my mind about America.

If a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and other former Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is hope for America.

I was chastised for writing several obituaries for Malcolm X, exploring different aspects of his writing. One teacher in particular told me, didn’t I think I was beating a dead horse? and dismissively threw my paper on my desk.

Malcolm was a firm believer in the value and importance of our heritage. He believed that we have valuable and distinct cultural traditions which need to be institutionalized so that they can be passed on to our heirs.

He was always – I like to say of Malcolm – he was just simply electrical. Everything he did almost was dramatic, and it wasn’t that he was trying to be: it was just the nature of him.

Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad’s message made a whole lot of people feel whole again, human being again. Some of them came out and found a new meaning to their manhood and their womanhood.

Aretha Franklin was as important to the civil-rights movement as Malcolm X and Medgar Evers. Artists can choose to take on the tremendous amount of responsibility we have, or choose to ignore it.

The rage was in me, and if it wasn’t for the rage, then I wouldn’t know how to be calm. They feed off of each other. Just like when Malcolm X fed off Martin Luther King. They needed each other.

Playing with Angus and Malcolm, that’s a pretty tough gig, mate. That made me the maniac that I am today, no doubt.

I can’t wait to work with Peter Capaldi as the next ‘Doctor.’ I know him from old; he’s such a lovely man and will be brilliant in the role. As long as he tones down the Malcolm Tucker swearing.

When ‘American Pie‘ happened, I was so lucky to get that opportunity and I just tried to do a good job in that genre. But the films that inspired me as a kid were, like, Malcolm McDowall in ‘A Clockwork Orange.’ He was my hero.

Malcolm X was the first political person in this country that I really identified with. If he had lived and not been purged, I probably would have joined the Muslims.

I think anybody who works with Malcolm, the first thing they go, ‘Holy cow! I’m working with Theo!’ because that was part of my childhood.

Not everyone likes sports. Gandhi and Malcolm X come to mind.

I’d been very partial to Malcolm X, particularly his self-help teachings.

The death of Malcolm Fraser underwrites a great loss to Australia. Notwithstanding a controversial prime ministership, in later years he harboured one abiding and important idea about Australia – its need and its right to be a strategically independent country.

David Icke reminded me of Malcolm X.

I’ve always found inspiration in icons that were really of purpose in their craft or calling. From Bob Marley to Maya Angelou to Malcolm X, inspiration came from seeing how committed they were to their vision and determining it themselves.

People look at me like I should have been like Malcolm X or Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks. I should have seen life like that and stay out of trouble, and don’t do this and don’t do that. But it’s hard to live up to some people’s expectations.

In 1974, when I started working with the material that became ‘Horses,’ a lot of our great voices had died. We’d lost Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin, and people like Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

I grew up in the sixties watching B.B. King and Tito Puente and Miles Davis and Coltrane, everybody, Marvin Gaye, Jimi. And at the same time, with my left eye I was watching Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Mother Teresa.

My own perception of Malcolm was one of something that bordered on fascination because I was looking at him and reacting to him as a subject.

I love Malcolm Lee and jumped on the opportunity to work with him as a director.

You watch ‘Malcolm X,’ and then Netflix recommends ‘B.A.P.S.,’ and you’re like, ‘What? Those movies have absolutely nothing to do with each other, but OK.’ They don’t recommend other historical biopics – it’s ‘B.A.P.S.’ and ‘Ghost Dad.’

I’m going to have to call up Spike Lee. I did a cameo for him in ‘Malcolm X,’ and I’m trying to get him to do my life story and the history of the Black Panther Party.

We had no money, and we had to go through ‘punk‘ school. We ended up living in the rehearsal room that used to be the Sex Pistols rehearsal room at Malcolm McLaren’s office. So we had this sort of interesting beginning.

‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X.’ I’ve used it to demonstrate racial attitudes to people who I thought needed a better understanding of all human beings. Malcolm was not a racist. He was not looking for revenge. He realized that kindness and goodness did not come from any one kind of person.

Doc has been my name all my life, and John is my middle name. I’m proud of all my names – Malcolm John Michael Creaux Rebennack. I’m proud of them names.

Even Angus says that Malcolm is a better guitarist than he is. He makes the drummer‘s job so easy, he’s a metronome.

What changed our lives forever was when Malcolm had the idea to sell rock ‘n roll records to trendy customers.

With guys I revere, like Marcus Garvey or Malcolm X, their look is less about style than purpose and the expression of beauty. It wasn’t just about being noticed, you know?

I want to be remembered as a combination of Malcolm X and Marvin Gaye, a strong black leader and a sexy entertainer.

When I was teaching in the 1960s in Boston, there was a great deal of hope in the air. Martin Luther King Jr. was alive, Malcolm X was alive; great, great leaders were emerging from the southern freedom movement.

We talk about how hard it is now. But if we look back at the ’60s, we actually had a president that was assassinated. We had riots, we had Vietnam, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, the FBI, and the Black Panther war. There was so much happening at the time where it felt like America was coming apart at the seams.

Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X came out of prison stronger.

I’m sorry to bang on about it because I know everyone is, but Bryan Cranston in ‘Breaking Bad‘ is remarkable. To see him switch from ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ to suddenly become Walter White is incredible. It’s a) nice to see an actor given that chance, and b) great to see him really take full advantage of it.

My cousin Malcolm Lee is also a filmmaker.

Ali… we should have gone to see that movie. Malcolm X was another one.

I come from an era of black pride, black power, my father riding around listening to James Brown singing, ‘Say it loud: I’m black and I’m proud,’ and people walking around with African medallions and Malcolm X hats.

Fortunately, the leadership of black immigrant communities has always been present in all black liberation movements from leaders like Marcus Garvey to Shirley Chisholm to Malcolm X and Harry Belafonte. We know this is our legacy.

If they had not murdered Malcolm X, there probably never would have been a Black Panther Party.

I didn’t learn black history in school. I had to go find Malcolm X books.

We should understand the impact that Malcolm had on the whole of American society.

It’s been a while since I checked in with Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘Revisionist History’ podcast. The episode ‘The King of Tears‘ suggests the author is raising the bar. His argument is that country music is the genre that makes us cry because, unlike rock, it’s not afraid of specifics.

I now believe Malcolm Turnbull is worse than Tony Abbott.

Malcolm X found the language that communicated across the board, from college professor to floor sweeper, all at the same time, without demeaning the intellect of either.

As someone who has an affinity and passion for discussing racial and cultural issues, I made it a point to only discuss those issues when they really mattered and not turn the shows into Malcolm X Unplugged.

The die is set and Malcolm will not escape for the foolish talk he spoke against his benefactor, such a man, is worthy of death, and it would have been so, were it not for Muhammad’s confidence that God would give him the victory over the enemies.

From Matthew Brady and the Civil War through, say, Robert Capa in World War II to people like Malcolm Brown and Tim Page in Vietnam. There was, seems to me, a kind of war-is-hell photography where the photographer is actually filming from life.

Malcolm X’s separatist ideas were situational. If you think about where African-Americans were in the 1940s and 1950s, we needed to step away because that force, which is still present but more subdued, was very in your face, and we needed to take a step back just to get some clarity.

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been asked to ‘be’ Malcolm Tucker: to go on a political program on television, presumably in order to be the character and give opinions as him.

I identify… with the ideas that Malcolm X stood for.