Laurence Fishburne Quotes

Author Image

Laurence Fishburne

Profession : Actor

Birth : July 30, 1961

A smart black guy is confronting for most people. But that's on them, not on me.

Laurence Fishburne

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.

Laurence Fishburne

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.'

Laurence Fishburne

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.

Laurence Fishburne

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.

Laurence Fishburne

As an actor, Coppola trained me. That was my training ground.

Laurence Fishburne

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.

Laurence Fishburne

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.

Laurence Fishburne

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.

Laurence Fishburne

We are our children's first teachers.

Laurence Fishburne

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.

Laurence Fishburne

Most of us are afraid of our success, that we will actually be great.

Laurence Fishburne

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?

Laurence Fishburne

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.

Laurence Fishburne

All I know is, I'm trying to do things that are a little different whenever I can.

Laurence Fishburne

There's great theatre in New York City, but no New York City in theatre.

Laurence Fishburne

I have heard a lot of people talk about this grind of series television. I have not seen it yet.

Laurence Fishburne

Jesse Eisenberg, this little nebbishy guy, as Lex Luthor? For me, that's a genius move.

Laurence Fishburne

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.

Laurence Fishburne

I was in a movie with Marlon Brando. Now, I didn't have any scenes with Marlon Brando, but I had scenes with Martin Sheen and was around Dennis Hopper, who was a child actor in the studio system and was enamored of James Dean, as was Martin, and they were all sort of disciples of Brando.

Laurence Fishburne