Laurence Fishburne
I don't ever get to the point where anything is old hat.
I had two times in my life where I wanted to give up everything I worked for, but God gave me a job.
As a movie star, you get good tables at restaurants.
I think I've certainly learned a lot of lessons in humility and continue to work on that part of myself.
You can't be bad when you're working with a kid. They have the instincts that all great actors have.
Acting is a childlike thing. To act well, you have to be childlike in order to free yourself.
Some characters need to be more performance-orientated; some, you have to be still.
Paulo Coelho's 'The Alchemist' means a lot to me.
Projects don't need to be special for me to sign up, but I do need them to have something that speaks to me in some way.
Things have become considerably better for men of colour since I was born. But I'd say that we'll be really getting somewhere when things get better for women of colour.
Anytime we're talking about Thurgood Marshall, that's a good thing, I think, because it gives us an opportunity to go back, look at the history, and recognize what his contributions were.
I actually had the opportunity to stand at the lectern in the Supreme Court and face the justices, which was really a powerful thing for me.
I have taken care of my gift, and because I've taken care of my gift, I feel like I've been continually and constantly blessed to get to do wonderful things.
I don't necessarily go out and try to do something that's going to be just something that will please the audience. I'm not interested in doing something where I get the most people to come see the movie at the same time and they get the biggest explosion. I'm not interested in that.
The commercial I did for Kia was hilarious and unexpected, so that, I think, is also another way of signaling to the audience that there's more to me than Morpheus.
I think there's going to be many special episodes of 'Blackish.'
I learned tolerance at a very early age.
I work with my instincts. I don't have a process that I learned in an acting class whereby I break a script down or whereby I do a certain kind of research.
Having 50 to 60 years on the planet should give you a sense of how to master the way you look and live your life.
I try to meditate.
I certainly believe that being in contact with one's spirit and nurturing one's spirit is as important as nurturing one's body and mind.
We are three dimensional beings: body, mind, spirit.
I have a relationship with the southern hemisphere that's a really good one. I love it there.
It's my luck that I was born a bit of an old soul, and it's served me well.
My company, Cinema Gypsy, produced a podcast, 'Bronzeville,' in conjunction with Larenz Tate and his brothers that we're developing into a television show. It deals with a very tight-knit African-American community in Chicago in 1947 and people who run a numbers wheel.
I'm passionate about all the things I do, really.
I always wanted to play a cowboy. I just didn't get to do it the way I thought I would.
A smart black guy is confronting for most people. But that's on them, not on me.
As a man of colour, I've spent my life asking people to see me for who I am. With Obama in the White House, it feels like people have finally caught up to where I've been most of my life.
When I was ten, I did a play at the Henry Street Settlement Playhouse, Charles Fuller's first play. He went on to write 'A Soldier's Story,' among other things. I realized, 'Oh, I can be anything doing this.'
I've been around long enough now and have learned to be flexible enough to know that every movie isn't going to be 'Apocalypse Now,' and every director doesn't have to be Stanley Kubrick.
If you're playing a real person, then you want to do a certain amount of research, but that's only going to be so useful to you. Each role requires a different kind of approach to get ready.
As an actor, Coppola trained me. That was my training ground.
My production company, what we are trying to do is I'm trying to create content that speaks to me, and it's not one color. It's not one size fits all.
I love the opportunity to use my full range, and so playing in the comedy 'Black-ish' gives me the opportunity to show my lighter side, and playing in this beautiful, elegant horror story of 'Hannibal,' I get to use my darker and more cerebral side. It's really wonderful.
What I continue to learn as a parent is to be mindful of the fact that I am responsible for being the parent that my children need me to be and not necessarily the parent I want to be.
We are our children's first teachers.
Hiding a talent is not exclusive to any one particular group of people: young, old, black, white, Latin. It doesn't matter. It's universal. The idea that you have a gift or talent is always kind of threatening.
Most of us are afraid of our success, that we will actually be great.
Obviously, after 'The Matrix,' it was a case of, 'OK, I did that. What's next?' I mean, it's always like that, but more so this time. How do I change it up? How do I keep it interesting for myself?
You can't go looking for another one of those franchises. You only ever get one of those. You get 'Stars Wars'; you get 'Indiana Jones' or get 'The Matrix.' I've had my franchise.
All I know is, I'm trying to do things that are a little different whenever I can.
There's great theatre in New York City, but no New York City in theatre.
I have heard a lot of people talk about this grind of series television. I have not seen it yet.
Jesse Eisenberg, this little nebbishy guy, as Lex Luthor? For me, that's a genius move.
I don't believe in acting teachers for me, so it's God's joke that he gave me a best friend who's an acting teacher.
I was a child actor but not a child star.
I can't imagine not coming back to the theater. It's where I started.
I see that I have, as part of my stock in trade, a very regal personality and carriage. I see that I have a kind of strength, a kind of command, and a kind of power that one would associated with a monarch.