Quotes By 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 play characters. I don't think I really have a persona per se. I don't play the same guy every time. I show up, you don't know what I'm gonna do. I like it that way. I've intentionally tried to do it that way. I think that's what's interesting.

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 that we all go through at some point.

I certainly believe that being in contact with one's spirit and nurturing one's spirit is as important as nurturing one's body and mind. We are three dimensional beings: body, mind, spirit.

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

I've played a lot of bad guys, 'cause that was the only work I could get. People saw my face and went 'oooh'.

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

It's funny, a lot of people think I take myself seriously because I come off so serious sometimes. But it's not that I take myself seriously, I take what I do seriously.

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 people, and I was a kid. Their ethos and credo became mine.

You know, whatever happens between the two of us that's created when we come together as actors is not something I think we can explain.