After being on 'Oprah' for a couple of months, I got my first royalty check for $1,478,392.17. I will never forget it. At the height of my career, I made $3.3 million. Unbelievable. From welfare in the projects to $3.3 million.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I know one author whose royalty income has been halved from £34,000 a year to £16,000.
Now my only income is a few royalty cheques from my books.
My first job paid well for a young attorney. I was making over $50,000, which was more than either of my parents had ever made. I thought I was rich.
The highest pay cheque my mother ever received funded the building of a nursery school in Shepherd's Bush - the school cost well over three times the money she donated to the making of the film 'The Palestinian.' Unsurprisingly this always goes unmentioned in the press.
Yeah, well when I first started working, it was $5 a show; it was probably a little higher by the time I got to my own show, but I remember that they put me under contract at $100 a week, which to me was really an astronomical price.
I have made more money than I ever thought anybody should ever make. But who cares if you're worth $500 million or $1 billion? That is not what I want to be remembered for, but for giving something back.
I put $5 million into the real-estate business when the world was coming to an end, and three years later, by 1980, I woke up and was worth a hundred. That's a lot of money back then.
By the time I was 25 or 26, I would have earned a million, but if you looked in the bank account, it's not there because I've spent it. That's what it's there for. I don't want to be the richest bloke in the graveyard. Look at Elvis.
I've obviously made a very nice amount of money. I have a very nice lifestyle. I get to do what I love. Very few actors get to do that, and even fewer are lucky enough to work steadily for 24 years.
The difference between Oprah Winfrey and me is about $200 million.