Quotes from Michael B. Jordan

I've been living with that all my life. My name is Michael Jordan, so I'm always being compared to a person of greatness.

You substitute certain things from your own personal life to get you to that mental place and that emotional state. At that time [Brian Robbins] went for the home run, the grand slam [in "Hardball"].

I want to leave something behind. A blueprint. A work ethic. Something that my great-grandkids and their kids and their kids can see: This is where it started. Lineage. Intergenerational wealth. Things that are here forever. All that.

I think everyone starts in the mailroom at some point! It's a right of passage. Your boss has to throw something at you and order you around for at least two years.

As a naturally reserved and quiet person, it's definitely a challenge being thrust into this atmosphere of celebrity and everything that comes along with that. Some parts I'm resisting more than others but can't for much longer, so I'm just trying to find a way to make sense of it all.

I encourage first time filmmakers to be ambitious and take chances and risks, because you never know where your career is going to go.

Sometimes you've gotta hide the medicine in the food. You can't slap somebody in the face with facts, all the time. It's too harsh.

I want the scripts Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't have time for. Joseph Gordon-Levitt isn't available? Call me.

I haven't been down to Navy Pier in such a long time. I know that's probably the touristy thing to do, but it just reminds me so much of 2000 when I was here shooting ["Hardball"].

I think that's part of my evolution: realizing that I can say 'no' to things, even when I'm faced with that lull that comes between projects, and I get anxious because I feel like I need to be constantly working.

Playing a bad guy would be fun, I'm not going to lie. I'd definitely do that in a heartbeat, because it's so out of my nature.

When I trained for 'Creed,' I had about a year in advance to know what I was doing before. So I lived like a fighter, you know? I went through the workout routine, the diet, training with real boxers, training with real trainers, did the whole thing.

Now if I cry on screen I think it's mint. Because I think that's how that person would feel at that time. And if it doesn't, then it just doesn't happen.

I love telling the experience of a black male in America, but modern, not always having to go back to a period piece to remind people where we come from. It's more a modern sense of where we are today and where we want to go in the future. So I try to choose projects somewhere around that space.

I've never been the kind of guy to hype myself up. It's just not my thing.

My dreams are huge, man. I dream all day every day. Do I want to get into restaurants one day? Yeah! Do I want to get into hospitality and have my own hotels? Yeah, I do!

I was born in Orange County - in Santa Ana. My dad is from California. I was raised on the East Coast. My first two years were in California, but I claim East Coast. I'm sorry, I don't rep California.

I love sports. I've played basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, track and field growing up.

You start at a young age, going on auditions, and you think you did a good job and expect to get that role, and you don't, and it's a letdown, a disappointment. So you tell yourself to just do the work and disconnect, because you have no control over the outcome.

For me, I really enjoy telling stories and helping the younger generation, young actors to have the same opportunity I did.

I've always wanted to direct and as I grow and I get older and I get older I just want to let that evolve.

Watching a really good movie excites me, because it makes we want to get up off the couch and go shoot something and act in a scene.

Honestly, soaps are great training. You're doing 90-plus pages a day. It was my acting class, where I built my foundation for showing up and being professional.

I came to the realization that I can also satisfy my creative side by giving somebody else a chance. I don't have to be in front of the camera for every project.