Quotes from Samuel L. Jackson

I get paid all day, every day, which is almost too much for a sensitive artist.

If you have an opportunity to use your voice you should use it.

I walk the streets, take the train, it's real simple. Some actors create their own mythology: 'Oh, I'm so famous I can't go places, because I created this mythology that I'm so famous I can't go places.'

Anyone who tells you money can't buy happiness never had any.

The certainty that life cannot be long, and the probability that it will be much shorter than nature allows, ought to awaken every man to the active prosecution of whatever he is desirous to perform.

I never thought I'd be working with Sam [L.Jackson] .That's about as good as it gets.

There are tons of stories out there. I read a lot of scripts on a weekly basis. I'm looking for stories to tell and stories that I hope will be interesting to an audience.

I kind of realize that I have a tendency to choose the kind of films I watched when I was a kid and would go home and pretend with my friends that we were in those movies after we saw them.

We've come a long way in our thinking, but also in our moral decay. I can't imagine Dr. King watching the 'Real Housewives' or 'Jersey Shore.'

When I saw the script [of The Man], I saw the character and knew I could do the character. It's a relationship movie, which is also what I love to do. That's what attracts me to projects.

I'm not as angry as I used to be. But I can get in touch with that anger pretty quickly if I feel my space is being invaded or somebody is not treating me with the respect that I think I want.

People go to movies on Saturday to get away from the war in Iraq and taxes and election news and pedophiles online and just go and have some fun. I like doing movies that are fun.

I grew up in the South with guns everywhere and we never shot anyone. This [shooting] is about people who aren't taught the value of life.

I never did one thing right in my life, you know that? Not one. That takes skill.

I understood, through rehab, things about creating characters. I understood that creating whole people means knowing where we come from, how we can make a mistake and how we overcome things to make ourselves stronger.

I voted for Barack because he was black. 'Cuz that's why other folks vote for other people - because they look like them... That's American politics, pure and simple.

We need to change America's image round the world. America has lost some lustre in terms of how folks aspire to be like us.

I've been fortunate to be in films that are classic, that are going to be around.

It wasn't until I let go of the idea of the brass ring that it showed up, and fortunately for me, it coincided with getting clean.

Not everybody goes to movies to get their life changed.

I did 'Formula 51' because I got to run around Liverpool in a kilt, with golf clubs.

I tend to play characters that I can infuse with certain kinds of humour. Even the baddest guy can be funny in his own particular way. I want the audience to engage with the character on some deeper level so that they leave the cinema still thinking about him.

Because of where I come from, I never thought I'd see in my life a black candidate running for President.

All movies aren't fun some are hard work. You try to do something and convey a set of emotions that have to do with some real life kind of stuff.