Keenen Ivory Wayans Quotes

"(Richard) Pryor started it all. He made the blueprint for the progressive thinking of black comedians, unlocking that irreverent style."

"As a parent, I think it`s important for kids to have a source of entertainment that deals with life in positive and comedic ways."

"Everything was a joke (in my family). If you got a whippin`, when you got back to the table, you heard nine other people doing impressions of your screaming."

It`s rare that you cut out something that is really good. You screen all of it, and when the audience doesn`t respond, you cut out whatever is holding the story down.

I put a scare in everybody to make the date even as I kept shooting. But That`s the good thing about coming from a low-budget world.

All I need is a camera and I`ll make things happen.

We felt like we had done as much as you can do with the slasher genre. We were trying to find the next group of scary movies that were ripe for parody.

I put the cameras on her and told her to be obnoxious as she could possibly could be. She was.

You just can`t make any movie and it will be good now. This is a really a difficult time to be in films.

You never really know until you put the movie in front of an audience. I am a big advocate of screenings, which are getting harder and harder to do nowadays.

The pressures having grown up in this business can be really rough. And it is a testament to you that you have remained focused and NOT lost your mind.

I enjoy the character interplay. Sometimes the audience is not laughing, but smiling, and that is almost just as good because it keeps them ready to laugh.

You do what it takes. It was on me to deliver.

Creativity is the answer. I always prefer the creative solution to an expensive solution.

Just making a good movie is hard to do.

I go through a whole process with the actors first, building and creating characters, then I encourage them to sort of live in that character when they`re in the screen.

My brothers can be a little out of control sometimes and so somebody has to be able to keep them focused.

There are two phases to a movie. First you shoot the movie, and then you make the movie. Generally, post-production is longer than filming.

Usually what happens is that you screen all of it and then when the audience doesn`t respond to it - you cut out whatever is holding the story down.

It`s really hard to take this stuff seriously. A lot of it is sexual, but it`s not offered up that way. It`s just body parts, gross kind of stuff.

The worst thing that can happen is you shoot something six months before you release it because a whole lot can happen in six months.

I like to have fun and be funny, but I`m much more of a thinker.

I always prefer the big laugh. That is always the objective, especially with a film like Scary Movie 2.

I prefer the smaller budget versus the bigger budget because the mentality that goes along with big budget filmmaking doesn`t really suit me; the mind-set that money is the answer.

I opened for Prince at the Houston Coliseum in front of 10,000 people. I said, Hi, and they booed. They didn`t want to see me. It can be a tough time.

You can kind of feel when things are going to work out.

We`ve seen so many films now, that you have to be on par with the best films that have preceded you. You just can`t make any movie and it will be good.

I`m not on all the time. I like to have fun and be funny, but I`m much more of a thinker.

I put heavy emphasis on the characters.

I think a lot comes from having the experience of doing stand-up comedy. It allows you to figure out the psychology of an audience; what things are funny and not.

It`s the teenage and university crowd, so we give them lots of sex jokes and gross humour.

We do nods to Charlie`s Angels and Mission Impossible because they are popular with our fan base.

I`m just calm under fire. I`m not intimidating at all.

This is really a difficult time to be in films.

We cut some scenes completely because they proved to be just too gross. That was one instance where the joke was too disturbing.

Slot machines are like crack for old people.

Everybody worked at a level they never worked before and will probably never work again. Our goal was not to disappoint the audience.

I have been a director who has starred, participated on both sides of the filmmaking process.

I throw it all in there, Kung Fu, blaxploitation, horror.

In rare instances you have to give up what you thought was a great scene.