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" I didn't know anything about acting at all. I was completely green. I got into it to meet people, to try and figure out what I wanted to do. "

Courtney B. Vance

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" There's a lot going on in the Bassett-Vance household, a lot of balls in the air. "

Courtney B. Vance

" I've done a lot of movies, but my favorite was 'Blind Faith.' "

Courtney B. Vance

" When actors have the opportunity to play a larger-than-life icon - my wife did it with Tina Turner, and Jamie Foxx did it with Ray Charles - you have to make a decision how you go in. What do you start with? Where do you begin? "

Courtney B. Vance

" Family is funny, and so it was not an unnatural thing for me, growing up, not to know anything about my dad or about the Vance side of our family. "

Courtney B. Vance

" I remember I was up for the role of Jim in 'Huck Finn,' and because I went to Harvard and Yale, they didn't think I would be able to play a slave. I said, 'Oh, please.' I had to go in there and prove to them that I wasn't too intelligent to play a slave. "

Courtney B. Vance

" Eventually, you know the rhythm of your character, of the set of the piece. It takes less energy for you to hit that point, and then everything resonates. But initially, it takes a tremendous amount of energy. You just hope it's gonna be okay and you don't forget your lines and those cameras. "

Courtney B. Vance

" When your tummy is full - even while shooting for long hours - you feel good. "

Courtney B. Vance

" From the outside, there's a lot of glitz. They see you on the red carpet, but they don't see what it takes to get there. "

Courtney B. Vance

" Tom Cruise is one of the most wonderful, kind, and generous men that I've ever met. "

Courtney B. Vance

" When I was a senior in high school, I did an internship with a law firm. And it was very clear that I did not have what it took to do that kind of work. "

Courtney B. Vance

" It's one of the roles of a lifetime to be able to play someone like Mr. Cochran who was so influential. People knew about his work in regard to police brutality. He was very much a staple in the community - someone who, if there was trouble, people knew, 'Go get Johnnie Cochran.' "

Courtney B. Vance

" Wes Anderson is a perfectionist, so you have to just be ready to try it this way, try it this way, try it that way, and then try it this way. And then, once you think you've got it all and it's done, then you're going to be called back in two or three months so you can try it that way and try it this way. You've got to give him all of it. "

Courtney B. Vance

" I've done a lot of theater, and I know that it's a different audience each time who doesn't know the story, and we have to tell it. "

Courtney B. Vance

" It was a natural for me to end up in the theater because I'd done a lot of reading about it. "

Courtney B. Vance

" I get up early, go to bed late, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. And I pray a lot. "

Courtney B. Vance

" When I got out of Yale Drama School, I was completely broke. "

Courtney B. Vance

" I would love to take a crack at 'Long Day's Journey Into Night.' "

Courtney B. Vance

" We have to give people dreams; we have to give people hope. In terms of government, in terms of society, that's our goal. You can't have a group of people that don't dream, that see themselves as dead or in jail. "

Courtney B. Vance

" My parents were all about education. My mother was a librarian - she retired after 30 years - and she made sure that we were always at museums, that we went to plays. "

Courtney B. Vance

" I think if you just hang in there long enough and keep doing what you know is your sweet spot, I think the world eventually catches up to you. "

Courtney B. Vance

" Our parents didn't let us watch a lot of television growing up. We had Disney on Sunday nights, and at 8:30, they were like, 'Turn it off! Go to bed!' "

Courtney B. Vance

" Growing up, my dad and my mom were there for my sister and I. "

Courtney B. Vance

" Around 1969, my family had just bought a house in a lower-middle-class white neighborhood two blocks away from school. Then, all of a sudden, all the white people left the neighborhood and the school. "

Courtney B. Vance

" The life of an editor is not a glamorous one. You're a fixer; you make things better. "

Courtney B. Vance

" I was a huge O. J. Simpson fan. "

Courtney B. Vance

" We were raised in the black community not to trust the police, and I believe, in the white community, they were raised to actually be a policeman. "

Courtney B. Vance

" It goes back in the black community that the police are not your friends. That's an old, old, deep understanding that we have, that it's going to take a lot to undo that in our minds. "

Courtney B. Vance

" I've done a lot of Shakespeare as a young man; I was involved with Shakespeare and Company. "

Courtney B. Vance