The Satya Interview: A Word with Dick Gregory

Q: You were the first Black celebrity to advocate a fruitarian, raw food diet. That was a very courageous thing to do.

A: But I don’t push that.

Q: Yes, I noticed that you didn’t mention it in your one-man show.

A: I try to take a gradual approach and put people in a transition period. If you were a good friend of mine, and if you were a heavy smoker, and if you were in a very bad accident, I would not come to the hospital and entice you to stop smoking because the one thing that a person needs when he gets into a crisis is his crutches. After you recovered, then I’d try to get you to stop smoking. I remember that when I was a heavy smoker, the first time that something happened — bad or good — I’d reach for a cigarette. When I stopped smoking, my whole nightclub act went off. I didn’t realize it at that time, but I’d been using the cigarette as a prop. I’d tell a joke and the whole joke would be set to the rhythm of my smoking.

Q: Was it harder to give up eating meat or smoking cigarettes?

A: Cigarettes. We’re not addicted to meat-eating the way we are to cigarettes.

Q: Do you have any religious affiliations?

A: I grew up in the Baptist Church.

Q: Do you think Christ was a vegetarian?

A: Sure. As a spiritual person, he had to be. He had to have reached the conclusion that nothing with life in it should be killed under any circumstances.

Rynn Berry is the author of Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes and the forthcoming Food For the Gods: Vegetarianism and the World’s Religions. Copies may be ordered from the author at $16.95 each postpaid from 159 Eastern Parkway, Apt. 2H, Brooklyn, NY 11238.

Article First Appeared @: http://www.animalliberationfront.com/ALFront/Interviews/Satya%20April%2096%20Interview%20with%20Dick%20Gregory.htm

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