We present you with some of the smartest, funniest and, of course, most candid comments from the best of Playboy’s iconic Interviews over the years.

“I would take great pleasure in the pride that would come to the black community if there were a Negro in the White House. I think it’s worth working for.”
– WILLIAM F BUCKLEY (May 1970)

“We need to find ways to get inside the minds of these people, to think differently. The threat is different. This is not the Cold War.
– GARY HART (February 2002)

“It’s as if 9/11 were a shot of novocaine into our nation’s moral nerves. It was such a shock that we still haven’t gotten over it. It has made people indifferent to things that we should be outraged about.”
– THOMAS FRIEDMAN (September 2005)

“I don’t need bodyguards.”
– JIMMY HOFFA (December 1975)

“Remember, Jesus was on Eighth Avenue with the prostitutes. He wasn’t uptown or in Washington, D.C.”
– MARTIN SCORSESE (April 1991)

“The human race may well become extinct before the end of the present century.”
– BERTRAND RUSSELL (March 1963)

“When we developed the first Walkman, a lot of our salespeople said a small machine like that wouldn’t sell.”
– SONY FOUNDER AKIO MORITA (August 1982)

“People get stuck as they get older. Our minds are sort of electrochemical computers. It’s rare that you see an artist in his 30s or 40s able to really contribute something amazing. Some remain kids, but they’re rare.”
– STEVE JOBS (February 1985)

“I hate women who hide the big ass. Don’t hide the big ass. It’s for all of us. Share this gift.”
– CHRIS ROCK (September 1999)

“We can’t all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of the blacks. I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility”
– JOHN WAYNE (May 1971)

Most people don’t know what neurotic means, so it’s like a dirty word. But in the true, literal meaning of neurotic, I think I am.”
– BARBARA STREISAND (October 1977)

“I saw a newspaper story about Googling dates. People were checking out who they were dating by Googling them. I think it’s a tremendous responsibility. If you think everybody is relying on us for information, you understand the responsibility. That’s mostly what I feel. You have to take that very seriously.”
– GOOGLE CO-FOUNDER LARRY PAGE (September 2004)

“I’ve never seen black men with fine white women. They be ugly, muggly dogs. You always see white men with good-looking black women.”
– SPIKE LEE (July 1991)

“When women are not people, when they are full of impotent rage, sex is not going to be fun.”
– BETTY FRIEDAN (September 1992)

“It’s ludicrous to declare that sex is wrong if you’re not married. It’s happening millions of times every day. If the laws against it were enforced, we’d have to build prisons for four fifths of the population.”
– JOHNNY CARSON (December 1967)

“I’m a nymphomaniac of the heart.”
– GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ (February 1983)

“What’s the fucking point of crashing, burning and rising like a phoenix out of your own ashes into the same exact fucking thing you were before, sans drugs or alcohol? What’s the value in that?”
– ROBERT DOWNEY JR. (December 1997)

“There are things I refuse to do. I think I’d draw the line at porn, but no one has asked.”
– BEN STILLER (August 2008)

“Opium and hash and pot – now, those things aren’t drugs; they just bend your mind a little. I think everybody’s mind should be bent once in a while.”
– BOB DYLAN (March 1966)

“You’re not going to call the Rolling Stones artists. I hate rock and roll. It’s ugly.”
– MARLON BRANDO (January 1979)

“I was never the hippest thing around, which means I wasn’t in the position to be replaced by the next hippest thing. I’m more like old shoes. But I can still whip Sean Connery with one hand tied behind my back.”
– HARRISON FORD (August 2002)

“When lip service to some mysterious deity permits bestiality on Wednesday and absolution on Sunday – cash me out.”
– FRANK SINATRA (FEBRUARY 1963)

“When I was 16 years old, I fucked Warren Beatty. Just like that. I did it because my girlfriends were so crazy about him and so was my mother.”
– CHER (December 1988)

“The great American formula for sex is: a kiss on the lips, a hand on the breast and a dive for the pelvis.”
– DR WILLIAM MASTERS (November 1979)

“George Washington was called a terrorist by the British. De Gaulle was called a terrorist by the Nazis. I am a freedom fighter.”
– YASIR ARAFAT (September 1988)

“My reaction to porn films is as follows: After the first 10 minutes I want to go home and screw. After the first 20 minutes I never want to screw again as long as I live.”
– ERICA JONG (September 1975)

“Fear should guide you, but it should be latent. I consider failure on a regular basis.”
– BILL GATES (July 1994)

“All over the world, writers are thrown in jail. They mysteriously die in police custody. It is open season on writers, and it must stop.”
– SALMAN RUSHDIE (April 1996)

“At my age, one becomes terrified of impotence. But I know I shall never cease to be sensual – even on my deathbed. If the doctor is young and handsome, I shall draw him into my arms.”
– TENNESSEE WILLIAMS (April 1973)

“I’m not celibate, and I do masturbate. But not like a fiend. I believe in moderation.”
– JIM CARREY (March 2004)

“I would pose nude for Picasso because of my belief in the art form. Sexuality and nudity are a huge part of our lives. But I have to feel that it is art. I would be horrified, humiliated and embarrassed if I felt exploited.”
– NICOLE KIDMAN (February 2005)

“Are there any writers on the literary scene whom I consider truly great? Yes. Truman Capote.”
– TRUMAN CAPOTE (March 1968)

“I never went to high school reunions. My thing is, Out of sight, out of mind. That’s my attitude toward life. I don’t believe in yesterday, by the way. I’m only interested in what I’m doing now. You can never go home. It doesn’t exist.”
– JOHN LENNON (January 1981)

“I was hollering, ‘I’m the greatest. I’m so pretty.’ People can’t stand a blowhard, but they’ll always listen to him.”
– CASSIUS CLAY, AKA MUHAMMAD ALI (October 1964)

“Why don’t they look underneath the breast, at the heart?”
– DOLLY PARTON (October 1978)

“A fellow named Howard Hughes was running RKO then, and he’s the one who came up with the title Double Dynamite. That was supposed to be a clever description of Jane Russell’s breasts. With thinking like that, it’s no wonder Hughes is a billionaire. He’d have to be a billionaire; otherwise, how could he make a living?”
– GROUCHO MARX (March 1974)

“That was one of the few times I did lose my temper. I said, ‘A lot of people think I’m a murderer. That’s something I’ve got to live with. But if you call anybody an asshole, you’ve got to be prepared to get bloody.”
– OJ SIMPSON (October 2003)

“Look at Mr Bush! He has said that he can’t understand anything about science, as if he were proud of it. I don’t think that’s something to be proud of. It’s a sign of a nation that doesn’t care about its future.”
– CARL SAGAN (December 1991)

“Look, man, all I am is a trumpet player.”
– MILES DAVIS (September 1962)

“An enemy of socialism cannot write in our newspapers – but we don’t deny it, and we don’t go around proclaiming hypothetical freedom of the press where it doesn’t exist, the way you people do.”
– FIDEL CASTRO (January 1967)

“If I were courageous, I would have killed Qaddafi when I interviewed him”
– JOURNALIST ORIANA FALLACI (November 1981)

“You get comfortable shooting. The first time, you’re scared to death, as scared as the guy you’re shooting at. Then it grows easier for you. After a while the idea of shooting someone doesn’t bother you.”
– 50 CENT (April 2004)

“Will Ferrell tried to stab me once. It was SNL, so we were all hopped up on goofballs, out of our minds on quaaludes and horse antibiotics. I remember thinking, This guy’s a genius. It would be an honor to be killed by him.”

– TINA FEY(January 2008)

“If we burn ourselves out with drugs or alcohol, we won’t have long to go in this business. You can’t work with an alcoholic or a drug addict.”
– JOHN BELUSHI (MAY 1977)

“There’s this ludicrous fear of the power of music manifesting itself in the corruption of the youth of america. There are more love songs than anything else. If songs can make you do something, we’d all love one another.”
– FRANK ZAPPA (APRIL 1993)

“Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go stick their noses in other people’s business. The religious right wants to tell people how to live.”
– JESSE VENTURA (November 1999)

“I’m annoyed. But if you’re not cranky and annoyed, you can’t be a comedian. Even I, though I might not seem to be, am constantly irritated. If I didn’t have all these sensitivities, I’d have nothing to talk about.”
– JERRY SEINFELD (October 1993)

“We will have lived in the hydrocarbon era, and oil will pretty much be gone by 2100. Look at what we have done to the atmosphere – the greenhouse gases. It may be that the ultimate cleanup is just to run out of it.”
– T BOONE PICKENS (January 2007)

“The deep frustration, the seething desperation of the Negro today is a product of slum housing, chronic poverty, woefully inadequate education and substandard schools. The Negro is trapped in a long and desolate corridor with no exit sign, caught in a vicious socioeconomic vise. And he is ostracized as is no other minority group in America by the evil of oppressive and constricting prejudice based solely upon his color.”
– MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. (January 1965)

“I think I might have a problem, a sexual addiction. I have porn on me at all times.”
– KANYE WEST (MARCH 2006)

“I took boxing back to its raw form. Kill or be killed. The winner gets it all. That’s what people want. And they paid me for it. People are afraid I’m going to unmask them for what they are: hypocrites.”
– MIKE TYSON (November 1998)

“What’s really scary is crashing. I look straight ahead, just waiting for some kook in front of me to crash. The race goes on, and you add rain or cobblestones. Last year on the cobbles I was so scared I felt like a child, just terrified.”
– LANCE ARMSTRONG (June 2005)

“Even the most ardent environmentalist doesn’t really want to stop pollution. We can’t afford to eliminate it. The answer is to allow only pollution that’s worth what it costs and not any that isn’t.”
– MILTON FRIEDMAN (February 1973)

“I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times. This is something that God recognizes I will do—and I have done it—and God forgives me for it.”
– JIMMY CARTER (November 1976)

“There’s nothing my critics can do about my website. If they slime me, it creates more of me.”
– MATT DRUDGE (August 1998)

“I didn’t want to be a fuckup. I thought that if I joined the Marines and learned to deal with authority, maybe I could be a normal guy.”
– JOHNNY DEPP (January 1996)

“Did I like being thought of as a rogue? It’s better than being thought of as shit. There’s another answer. It was good for business. For a while I settled down, and it was less good for my career.”
– JACK NICHOLSON (January 2004)