Laurence Fishburne Quotes

I've played a lot of bad guys, 'cause that was the only work I could get. People saw my face and went 'oooh'.

I have a voice. It's one of my gifts. I intend to use it on behalf of the children that UNICEF seeks to aid.

I certainly believe that being in contact with ones spirit and nurturing ones spirit is as important as nurturing ones body and mind. We are three dimensional beings: body, mind, spirit.

When you're on screen with Mads, there's some real fireworks because your character is his intellectual equal. In a way, maybe your character has an instinct as to who this man really is.

I think of myself as being a relatively intelligent man who is open to a lot of different things and I think that questioning our purpose in life and the meaning of existence is something that we all go through at some point.

People think that I'm haughty and stuck up, but really I'm just very shy.

Special effects are characters. Special effects are essential elements. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there.

We know that passion, prejudice, party, and even good-will, tempt many who preserve a fair character with the world to deviate from truth in the laxity of conversation.

I came up around people who took acting seriously, who cared about acting, cared about the theater and, in the '70s, made movies that said something that mattered. I came up with those people, and I was a kid. Their ethos and credo became mine.

I play characters. I don't think I really have a persona per se. I don't play the same guy every time. I show up, you don't know what I'm gonna do. I like it that way. I've intentionally tried to do it that way. I think that's what's interesting.

The thing with kids is that you only get one chance to do it right. It's really important to share their gifts while they're discovering them. That's why spelling bees are such a compelling story. They stimulate them intellectually, they awaken their competitive spirit, but it's fun. There's something fun about words.

Mine were informal mentors. They were all in my working life.

I've been a fan of Mads since the “Casino Royale” movie. I really sat up and paid attention to him. I was like, “Who is this motherf**ker?” Even his work in something as sort of popcorn as “Clash of the Titans,” he brings a kind of danger and reality and he grounds it in such a way that you think, yes, I'm good to work with this guy. I should come back, just stay behind him. (Laughs) Our working relationship has been fantastic.

It's funny, a lot of people think I take myself seriously because I come off so serious sometimes. But it's not that I take myself seriously, I take what I do seriously.

I think everyone is very surprised at how matrix has become the pop culture phenomenon that it is.

I wouldn't say that going into a weekly television series is actually stepping away from anything. It's another medium in which to work as an actor.

You know, whatever happens between the two of us that's created when we come together as actors is not something I think we can explain.