Quotes

"You never see girls running after engineers."(on why he chose acting over a career as an engineer)

"I was flabbergasted. Everybody knows when you've got a role in a Spike Lee movie, you're gonna blow up. But I happen to be the only person who's had the lead in the two Spike Lee movies nobody saw. It was a humbling experience, but Spike taught me more about how to fall on my face in this business than anybody else." (on the attention he didn't garner after being in Sucker Free City (2004) and She Hate Me (2004))

"I've never seen anything like it before. It's like the old days of James Cagney, when women would just swoon." (on the effect that Matthew McConaughey, his co-star in We Are Marshall (2006), has on women)

I'm not Josh Brolin or Ryan Gosling. They're more noir than I.

I'm a firm believer in people who love what they do.

I would love to be a superhero.

I just don't understand how people can get so caught up in having their picture taken.

I got a job as soon as I graduated from school. I always wanted to bartend because I love listening to people and how awful their lives are.

At Juilliard, I couldn't afford to have fun. I went to school and stayed home.

In New Orleans, where I'm from, the average household income, with two working parents, two kids, a dog and a little fence is $16,000 a year, so $15,000 for a movie sounds pretty good.

I was raised with a sense of entrepreneurship - my father owned a roofing business, and I grew up with the idea that you never want someone telling you what you can and cannot do.

I like movies. Movies have afforded me a modicum of luxuries. The thing about the movies is, if you're bad in a movie, you're bad forever.

Art-school girls are very nice.

Instead of becoming an engineer like my brother, I moved to New York to be an actor.

Every time I get mad, I grab my hammer and make a bookshelf or something.

The choices that we make through our lives, the people who intersect us on our path kind of change what our fated destiny is. So some of us are lucky enough for the choices that we make to keep us on our path.

So I feel like success is opportunity plus preparation, so work begets work, and as long as you're prepared it's going to continue to come your way.

I went to school and made good grades and went to college. So I was afforded an opportunity through my parents' hard work that most people don't have.

With all the movies I've done, I still get recognized from my episode of 'Law & Order' more than anything else. It never fails.

There was this rapper from New Orleans, Mystikal, who when I hear his music, I hear myself. Whenever I wanna get hyped, I put on Mystikal.

There are a lot of limitations and stigmas that are placed on young actors, specifically young black actors.

The stage is my first love.

Most of my movies are indies. The best scripts I can find are independent films. But I love big-budget movies, I love craft services!

Money always changes the game, when you let a dollar come between you and your friends, your cohorts.

If you want to buy a good movie, you'll buy a good movie. If you don't want to buy a good movie, you'll buy a 'Twilight' movie.

If you look at the true essence of the Black Panthers, they were more of a community protection group.

If the acting don't work out, I'll have a future in construction.

If everyone invested in the neighborhood they lived in, the United States would be a magical place.

I enjoy where I am and I don't have a problem with being Steve Buscemi, Stanley Tucci, Don Cheadle, or Jeffrey Wright. They're not the lead of every movie they're in, but every time you see them they're really good.

Everybody knows when you've got a role in a Spike Lee movie, you're gonna blow up. But I happen to be the only person who's had the lead in the two Spike Lee movies nobody saw.

Do you want to be an actor, or do you want to be a celebrity? I made that decision when I went to Juilliard. I wanted to be an actor. So, if I get the opportunity to be an actor and do some cool, fun and interesting projects, I'm going to do that.

Acting is the only medium were people think they can just stand up and do it because they can say lines, but that is not so much the case. You have to study styles and techniques.

I did this movie with Spike Lee called Sucker Free City (2004), and that would have to be my favourite role by far. It was just so much fun to work with Spike and shoot in San Francisco.

The great thing about it is, in Hollywood, certain people are very good at keeping their lives and who they are very private. I've never met anybody as down to earth and cool in Hollywood than Matt Damon.

[on making "Triple 9"] We had some local actors and some people from the streets. Some of them were from rival gangs, but nobody wanted to mess up the opportunity of being in a movie, so nothing happened. But we came close. It helped put us in the mind of being a cop and thinking about how easy things can explode in your face.