And where I excel is ridiculous, sickening, work ethic. You know, while the other guy's sleeping? I'm working.

I just think that the gifts that God has given me and the attention that I have, I just don't feel like acting is the limit of it. I just feel like there's so much more that I could do...And, you know, every day I wake up and I try to do a little more and I just want the world to be different and better because I was here.

I love being black in America, and especially being black in Hollywood.

I had to focus and create a character in Bagger Vance, not just do my 'Will Smith' thing and get paid.

There’s a redemptive power that making a choice has rather than feeling like you’re an effect to all the things that are happening. Make a choice. Just decide what it’s gonna be, who you’re gonna be, how you are going to do it. Just decide. And from that point, the universe will get out of your way.

The things that have been most valuable to me I did not learn in school.

Well, all I know is what I read in the papers.