Samuel L. Jackson Quotes

[When asked about his character in
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace] "He's black."

[On the subject of his character's inevitable death in
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith] "I don't mind dying, I just don't wanna go out like some punk."

"People mistake me for
Laurence Fishburne all the time. And he always gets mistaken for me. (And why not? We've both starred in
Spike Lee movies, haven't we?) Even when we're standing together, people have called him by my name and me by his. A woman recently ran up to him and said, 'My daughter loved you in
Pulp Fiction! Could she have your autograph?' So he signed it, 'Respectfully yours, Samuel Jackson.'"

"To be frank, I am as passionate about golf as I am about acting. I very seldom get angry at golf. The year I started golf I had a caddie and one day I did get angry with myself and threw a club. My caddie told me, 'You're not good enough to get mad'. I have never thrown a club since. I enjoy my golf, it does not matter whether I play great or badly. I let it go."

"I've played Loch Lomond - that's the one with the bogs isn't it? I played the one with the lighthouse. When we were in Liverpool we used to take the ferry and go to Northern Ireland. Films get in the way of my golf, but they have afforded me the chance to play a lot of golf."

On playing Othello - "I didn't realise how much I hated that play until I agreed to do it. I don't mind Shakespeare so much, but I really hate Othello. Here was a guy who had been all over the world, kicking ass, looting, plundering and probably raping the baddest babes on the planet. Then he falls in love with some teenager and loses his fucking mind. I don't like that idea at all. I mean, how stupid was he?"

People shout at me "Hey, loved that
The Matrix, man!" Yeah - me too. I was actually on a plane last year and this guy sat down next to me. Finally he said something to me, and we started talking about _Pulp Fiction (1994)_ . He couldn't remember the actor's name, so I tried to help and said "I think it might have been Samuel Jackson." He jumped in "No, no, it's the other guy, that Fishburne guy". We rode the whole flight having that coversation and then, right at the end, he looked hard at me and said, "You sure look familiar, you're sure you're not
Laurence Fishburne?" I said "No, and I definitely am not in
Pulp Fiction either'."

"I think everyone who says they don't like watching themselves in movies should stop lying."

"People like the Ezekiel speech. I have to say that speech about three times a week to people, just to prove that I still know it."

"I was a square for so long and it totally amazes me that people think I am cool."

[On how his look was created in
Pulp Fiction] "
Quentin Tarantino wanted Jules to have a big afro. He sent this PA out to buy a wig. She went to South Central and bought this jeri-curl wig. And Quentin was going off, saying, 'It's got to be an afro because he had this whole blaxploitation thing'. I told him, 'That's the South Central look.' You look at Ice Cube and NWA. Guys had all this shit dripping down their necks. I had already grown the sideburns out and the mustache. It was perfect. Total Gangster."

"A movie is just a movie to me. They open, they close."

"I have a place that's pretty much cemented in Hollywood in terms of liability, box-office viability and everything else. The only thing an Oscar would do is jack my check up maybe $1 million."

"What kills me is that everybody thinks I like jazz."

"I can't say to myself, 'I haven't had a drink in 15 years, I could have a glass of champagne and be OK'. That might be true, but history says when I opened that bottle of champagne, I sat there and drank it until it was gone. People who've been through what I went through are always going to be tempted. I enjoyed drinking and I enjoyed taking drugs. But I have to remind myself every day that I can't have a drink."

"I feel like I have a kinship to England. I go about three or four times a year because you guys love me. Seriously, that's it right there. I just need to feel that love every once in a while. I like England because I can go anywhere on the tube and buses. So when I'm there I go to all the places where I used to hang out."

"Hollywood people tend to think that because one is successful in one aspect of entertainment they can bring them into this particular world and make a success out of them. They ask people like me to be in a film with those people that they are kind of headlining and your name ends up behind them. If you do that, it sanctions the fact that these people come into this world and you think they are worthy of you sharing your time on screen with them. I don't particularly think that. A month or so ago, someone called me about the
50 Cent movie and I'm like, 'What are you calling me for?'. I don't even need to read that because that's not something I want to do. I like listening to
50 Cent and I can groove to his music but I don't want to groove to him on screen, just yet. Maybe if he does five movies and he shows some talent. I mean how does he get to work with
Jim Sheridan and I don't. What is it about
50 Cent that makes
Jim Sheridan say, 'I'd really like to make a movie with him.'?"
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SAMUEL L. JACKSON PICTURES:
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