"Keeping it real ain't about carrying a gun or smoking blunts. It's about being true to yourself and those around you." "Rollerball sucked!" - discussing one of his movies on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. "Am I James Todd Smith now or LL Cool J? Pick a name baby. Pick a name and ride with it. I don't wanna abandon my identity as LL Cool J, but at the same time, I had to figure out how to let people know that I'm really serious about making these movies. You know when you do 25 or 30 movies and people are still asking you 'how does it feel making the transition?' you know you're not communicating correctly. So I just put the James Todd Smith thing there to let people know I was serious. It's not like I made it Lawrence Cool J or something!." "Hip-hop can be limiting and I refuse to accept limits. I've been training as an actor for six years. Nobody goes to acting school for six years. I mean, the college course is only four years! I absolutely trained. My acting coach is from the Stanislavsky school. It's real - I act." "I'm happy to be black. I am what I am, I'm doing very well in my life, and I'm thankful to God for that. I am a real person that cares about his art and cares about what he's doing - I have a heart and a soul and want to touch people and give. As a black man, my hope is that I can touch more and more people all over the world of different races and different colours. And I think eventually, if I just stay on this path, we'll get there." "One thing I'm not gonna do, because I'm black, is suddenly say 'you know what, I can't play a villain!' You don't need to be the good guy to get a good message out. I'm not going to limit myself like that. I just want to play good roles and be able to touch a lot of people." "I think when you move past your fear and you go after your dreams wholeheartedly, you become free. Know what I'm saying? Move past the fear." "I don't think you should go around talking trash about people because I think that's how you get your hat handed to you. I'm good at what I do, but I wouldn't be so bold and arrogant as to say something disrespectful about, say, Eminem. He's talented and he's good at what he does."