Will Smith Quotes

1. (on learning to swim) I'm too big to have some woman hold my stomach and say: "Now kick your feet."


2. Being realistic is the most common path to mediocrity.

3. Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week.

4. For me, there is nothing more valuable than how people feel in a movie theater about a movie.

5. The first eight years of schooling was with all white people. So that helped me to understand how white people think. I think that transition is what helped me bridge the gap, because that's what my success has really been about: bridging the gap between the black community and the white community.

6. Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feelings and emotions.

7. I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.

8. Tommy Lee Jones is hilarious. I would say, if you look at the body of his work, the character he is most like is the one in "The Fugitive." That's how he talks and jokes. That is the type of energy he has.




9. America is a nation that conceives many odd inventions for getting somewhere but it can think of nothing to do once it gets there.

10. In black neighborhoods, everybody appreciated comedy about real life. In the white community, fantasy was funnier. I started looking for the jokes that were equally hilarious across the board, for totally different reasons.

11. Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too.







12. (on turning down the lead role in "The Matrix") You know, "The Matrix" is a difficult concept to pitch. In the pitch, I just didn't see it. I watched Keanu's performance - and very rarely do I say this - but I would have messed it up. I would have absolutely messed up "The Matrix". At that point I wasn't smart enough as an actor to let the movie be. Whereas Keanu was smart enough to just let it be. Let the movie and the director tell the story, and don't try and perform every moment.

13. (on his first season of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air") I was trying so hard. I would memorize the entire script, then I'd be lipping everybody's lines while they were talking. When I watch those episodes, it's disgusting. My performances were horrible.

14. My skin is hard when it comes to my music. But with my movies, I'm still a virgin in a lot of ways. I'm not used to being shot down for no reason.

15. (on the change in his body that Ali's intense physical training required) I'm human viagra. I'm Willagra. I'm a sex machine now. I'm raring to go every second of the day. My wife's loving it.

16. Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want to impress people they don't like.

17. My biggest emotional defeat and the greatest emotional pain I've had as an actor was when "Wild Wild West" opened up to $52 million. The movie wasn't good. And it hurt so bad to be the No. 1 movie, to open at $52 million and to know the movie wasn't good.

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

19. (when asked by Jules Asner about having more children) I want to stop at five.

20. You can cry, ain't no shame in it.

21. When I turned 28, everything clicked. I even got way better in bed.

22. Money and success don't change people; they merely amplify what is already there.

23. You're so much stronger when your partner is strong. I honestly believe there is no woman for me but Jada. Of all the women I've met - and there've been a few - no one can handle me the way Jada does. Once you feel someone locked in on you, it's no contest. As fine as other women can be, as tempting sexually, I'm not going anywhere. This is it. I can't imagine what anyone else could offer.


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

25. I really believe that a man and a woman together, raising a family, is the purest form of happiness we can experience.

26. When I was growing up, I installed refrigerators in supermarkets. My father was an electrical engineer.

27. People laugh, but if I set my mind to it, within the next 15 years I would be president.

28. If you're not willing to work hard, let someone else do it. I'd rather be with someone who does a horrible job, but gives 110% than with someone who does a good job and gives 60%.

29. A rapper is about being completely true to yourself. Being an actor is about changing who you are.

30. My grandmother once told me: "Don't let failure go to your heart and don't let success go to your head."

31. I don't know what my calling is, but I want to be here for a bigger reason. I strive to be like the greatest people who have ever lived.

32. (on "Star Wars") I might have been eight or nine. That was the movie that put me into a space where the science fiction element was almost a spiritual connection for me. I thought, if someone could imagine that and then put it on a screen and make me feel like that…and my entire career I've been trying to make people feel like "Star Wars" made me feel.


33. I've always considered myself to be just average talent and what I have is a ridiculous insane obsessiveness for practice and preparation.

34. There's so much negative imagery of black fatherhood. I've got tons of friends that are doing the right thing by their kids, and doing the right thing as a father - and how come that's not as newsworthy?





35. I don't necessarily believe in organized religion.

36. (about Aishwarya Rai Bachchan - February 2006) I really wanted to work with her in "Hitch" but she was shooting "Bride & Prejudice" at the time and she couldn't do it. She has this powerful energy where she doesn't have to say anything, do anything, she can just stand there. Anything she's making, I'll be there.

37. The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is that I'm not afraid to DIE on a treadmill. You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, but if we get on a treadmill together, there are two things: 1) You're getting off first or 2) I'm gonna DIE. It's really that simple.



38. If I weren't a musician/actor, I'd be a computer engineer. I was always good at math. I probably would have been the guy who invented the remote control if I'd been around then.

39. It's quite highly possible that I have peaked. I mean, I just can't imagine what else I could do beyond this. It's really a bittersweet kind of feeling.

40. When I started in movies, I said: "I want to be the biggest movie star in the world". The biggest movie stars make the biggest movies, so (my producing partner James Lassiter and I) looked at the top 10 movies of all time. At that point, they were all special-effects movies. So "Independence Day", no-brainer. "Men in Black", no-brainer. "I, Robot", no-brainer.

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

42. (on refusing to kiss Anthony Michael Hall in "Six Degrees of Separation") It was very immature on my part. I was thinking: "How are my friends in Philly going to think about this?" I wasn't emotionally stable enough to artistically commit to that aspect of the film. In a movie with actors and a director and writer of this caliber, for me to be the one bringing something cheesy to it…This was a valuable lesson for me. Either you do it or you don't.

43. As a child I watched "Dallas", and that was the vision for my life as long as I can remember. The property had a name! It was called "Southfork". How does a property have a name? Ours was just "Row House".

44. Give me a problem, I'll give you a solution. I just love living. That's a feeling you can't fake. I'm glad every single day. I think that even the camera can feel that I'm a happy man.

45. Goofy was the word that was used most often by my sisters because I've been this tall ever since I was 12 years old.

46. You don't start out saying you're going to build a wall. You don't start off saying: "I'm going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall ever." You start with a brick. You say: "I'm going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid." Do that every single day and soon you'll have a PERFECT wall.

47. I was nine and my older sister must have been 15. Some guys pulled a knife on me and took my money when I was coming home from school. I came in crying and my sister asked me why. I told her and she right away grabbed a baseball bat. We walked around for four hours looking for this guy. She had no concern for her own safety. Somebody had done something to her brother and she was going to do everything in her power to make sure they never did it again. We never found the guys, but that type of love and commitment is what I search for. My mother and my grandmother. That same kind of unconditional love. All women have the organs. But that's not what excites me about being in a relationship with women, that's not what makes me feel good. What I want to know is: "Are you gonna grab a bat when someone steals my money?" Now, Miss Jada's so little, she might need two bats, but she's more than happy to go grab 'em. Outside of our love relationship, she's my best friend, too.

48. You can cry, ain't no shame in it.

49. Success is not this wonderful, esoteric, illusive, god like feature that only the special among us will ever taste. It's something that truly exists in all of us. It's very simple: this is what I believe, and I'm willing to die for it.




50. There's probably only four women in Los Angeles that have intimate knowledge of Will Smith. You know, I had my brief period, a short time in my life, but that got real old real quick. I want to love somebody. I just always prefer one woman. The intimacy is so much more enjoyable when it's with someone you love. Because I know I can pretty much have sex with anyone I choose, it becomes less appealing. It's no challenge. A successful relationship is much harder than sleeping with as many women as you can sleep with.

51. Everybody need a partner to stand right by their side.




52. We all want to be in love and find that person who is going to love us no matter how our feet smell, no matter how angry we get one day, no matter the things we say that we don't mean.

53. So if you stay ready, you ain't gotta get ready, and that is how I run my life.

54. I want the world to be better because I was here.





55. If it was something that I really committed myself to, I don't think there's anything that could stop me becoming President of the United States.

56. The first step before anyone else in the world believes it, is you have to believe it. There's no reason to have a plan B because it distracts from plan A.

57. In my mind, I've always been an A-list Hollywood superstar. Y'all just didn't know yet.

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

59. (on fame) There are members of the press who make their living infringing on people's private moments. You never know where these people are going to be. They stay outside your house and climb the gates and walk around looking in your windows. Now I've got a bunch of 140-pound Rottweilers. It's just a shame to have to live like that, because I like people so much. Still, you don't know what people will do. You can never feel completely safe. You've got to look around all the time. I'm kind of used to that, being black, watching out for white people coming to get you. Now it's tenfold…I'm having trouble dealing with the concept that you sacrifice your right to courtesy by being a celebrity. Because I'm a celebrity, someone is allowed to block my way from getting into my car. If I'm in the middle of a conversation, because I'm a celebrity, someone can come up to me and go: "Can you sign this?" You're supposed to do the nice thing and sign, because if you don't, it's like: "He's such an asshole. He doesn't sign autographs." You're in mid-gulp at a restaurant and people ask you to put down your fork, take some dirty pen that you have no idea of where it's been, sign some filthy piece of paper ripped off a paper bag they found outside, then go back and put your hands in your food.

60. Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects. 

61. (on fame)  I'm pretty good at diffusing potential situations, but I find myself having to diffuse them a lot more often than before. I heard Sylvester Stallone say once that after he made Rocky, everybody wanted to fight him. Well, every big guy wants to fight me now. They go: "Yo. I ain't no alien-hit me," and I'm like: "I don't want to hit you. I just want to get some cheese from the supermarket to make grilled cheese sandwiches for my son." Why do people want to fight me? What did I do? I think of myself as a pretty calm, likable guy. It's really weird. I was nonthreatening on "The Fresh Prince," so nobody wanted to fight me, but then I buffed up for "Independence Day", came on a little cocky, and suddenly people want to knock me down. People who know me from TV think I've seen them in their underwear drinking on their couch, so the response is more familiar, more friendly. Film gives you almost God status, you know? It makes people crazy.

62. The first step is you have to say that you can.


63. I had a hit single on the radio for 30 days before I graduated from high school.

64. I've never really viewed myself as particularly talented. I've viewed myself as slightly above average in talent.

65. When you create art, the world has to wait.

66. (on fame) I was in Manhattan making "Men In Black" and this girl was driving along, saw me and started mouthing over and over: "Oh, my God. Oh, my God," then crashed into another car. Smith shakes his head in amazement. "Now, she gets out of her car, but she doesn't say: "Oh. I crashed into the back of a car!" She runs over to me and asks for my autograph. That's when I thought: This is real different. Then, I was at the Virgin Megastore in Manhattan and this girl came up to me, pulled her shirt up and asked me to sign her breasts with a Sharpie. I mean, she's standing there in the middle of the store with her titties hanging out and I'm like: "Listen, those are really nice breasts, but this is really an inappropriate time and place." In another store, this toothless 80-year-old lady came up to me, grabbed my face and tried to kiss me right on the lips. I said: "Now, ma'am, if I walked up to you, grabbed your face and tried to kiss you on the mouth, the cops would give me a Rodney King and take me right to jail." And she was like: "Oh, slop being mean. Just give me a kiss."

67. Life is lived on the edge.




68. The fellow that can only see a week ahead is always the popular fellow, for he is looking with the crowd. But the one that can see years ahead, he has a telescope but he can't make anybody believe that he has it.

69. I love producing. I am loving doing that. I think that is my most natural space in the business. I just love producing or editing and that's where I thrive.

70. The first time that I performed as an actor was the first day on the set of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air."







71. As for my life right now, the picture I always see in my mind is of that incredible game Michael Jordan had where he had 63 points. He just turned to the TV cameras and shrugged, like: "Hey, I'm just throwing 'em up there and they're going in." That's how I feel. I'd love to say that I'm brilliant, that I'm the second coming. The real answer is that I'm blessed. I throw 'em up from wherever I am and they just keep going in. How cool is that?

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

73. Love is the ultimate theme, but it's not just for women.

74. I'm a student of world religion, so to me, it's hugely important to have knowledge and to understand what people are doing.

75. I'm above average in talent, but where I think I excel is psychotic drive. All I need is for somebody to say I can't do something and this crazy switch inside me makes me attack whatever I'm doing. Psychotic drive is where I excel over people that are probably more naturally gifted.

76. I think with movies I am really connecting to the Joseph Campbell idea of the collective unconscious.

77. Whatever your dream is, every extra penny you have needs to be going to that.

78. I try to speak my points of view about black America, and how I feel about black men and the role that black men should play in their lives with their children and in their lives with their women.

79. In film and TV, there's a natural, gradual decline to your career. In the music business, it's literally one day. The day your record hits the radio, you explode to number one on the countdown. You're the man, you're large, you're doing show after show. Then you're over just that fast. I had the ups of people telling me: "You're the man, Will," then the downs of selling your house because you can't afford all this stuff you bought because everybody told you were the man. The money disappeared. But, my God, I learned about myself because I had the ups and all the downs...I've been in really ugly situations, hostage situations, on the road with my music. You know, you get out to Albany, Georgia and the promoter didn't make his money, so he doesn't want to pay you. I mean, during the first part of my music career, we signed our first deal with a gangster who later tried to shoot us. He was a penny-ante gangster, but the bullets were for real. As we were driving away, he shot at the car five or six times. It was pretty scary, but you don't think about that while it's happening, you're just trying to get away. He would have killed us if he could actually shoot.

80. I was raised in a Baptist household, went to a Catholic church, lived in a Jewish neighborhood, and had the biggest crush on the Muslim girls from one neighborhood over.

81. I've trained myself to illuminate the things in my personality that are likable and to hide and protect the things that are less likable.



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