Laurence Fishburne

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

“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 peopl...”

“'The Fugitive Kind,' 'Rope,' 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' - I watched all these as a way of reminding myself that you can do a movie based on a play. You can do a movie that stays in on...”

“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 any...”

“I have a relationship with the southern hemisphere that's a really good one. I love it there.”

“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.”

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

“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 th...”

“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.”

“My mother is quite a woman. She would push me, and when I got tired of her pushing, I'd say: 'Leave me alone. Don't push so much.'”

“I'm left-handed: I can think and feel at the same time. My feminine side is very highly developed.”

“I have a man cave somewhere in California - a totally undisclosed location where manly things occur. There are motorcycles, there are secret doors and passageways. Women are welcome, but the...”

“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 think everyone is very surprised at how 'Matrix' has become the pop culture phenomenon that it is.”

“It's a huge blessing to know you've done something that has affected people the way 'The Matrix' has. It's like, there's 'Star Wars,' and then there's 'The Matrix.' It's cool to be a part of...”

“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...”

“I try to stay in shape a little bit, but I don't obsess about it.”

“When I think of Othello, I think of a poet-warrior. Let me say that again - a romantic warrior. And I think I have those qualities in common with him.”

“I don't think Othello is a jealous man - he is a man who has been deceived by another person, just as everybody in the play is deceived by that person... The playwright uses the word 'jealou...”

“I can't remember a picture that has expressed black attitudes and personal relationships as vividly as we've done in 'Cadence.'”