I’m not in the loop; I don’t know any actors, really, just the ones I work with.

The richest people in the world look for and build networks; everyone else looks for work.

Every time I make American film I just trust American directors and American writers.

Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.

The future of American film lies on television.

If I’d married someone in show business, there’d be too much competition.

At the end of the day, I want to be part of the same conversation as Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle, Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor.

Whatever position I occupied, it was the result of colleagues – of my comrades in the movement – who had decided in their wisdom to use me for the purpose of focusing the attention of the country and the international community on me.

I never called my work an ‚art‘. It’s part of show business, the business of building entertainment.

If anything, a lot of electronic music is music that no one listens to at home, hardly. It’s really only to be heard when everyone’s out enjoying it.

I’m a big fan of Aamir Khan… Among actresses, I like Aishwarya Rai.

A lot of dumb pictures have made a lot of money, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to be anything cinema students will revel over in the future.

I don’t know how to work a room. It’s a real skill.

I’ve seen too many ups and downs in the movie industry.

I have a lot of friends who do what I do. Either they’re actresses or singers or things like that.

I love making movies, but there’s nothing like performing live.

Being flooded with information doesn’t mean we have the right information or that we’re in touch with the right people.

Film is a very tight little box. If you don’t fit in that box, you’re gone. Television, there’s more room to move around.

I think women are really good at making friends and not good at networking. Men are good at networking and not necessarily making friends. That’s a gross generalization, but I think it holds in many ways.

A film is sort of binary – it either works or it doesn’t work. It has nothing to do with how good a job you do. If you bring it up to an adequate level where the audience goes with the movie, then it works, that is all.

I know Gov. Christie. We’ve met a couple of times.

All of the people in my life whom I consider to be close friends or colleagues are good thinkers.

Even now I will go to, like, an industry event, and all the ladies will be over here and all the guys over here, and I will go to the guys‘ table and sit because I just feel I can have a much better conversation over there. And that’s automatic; it’s not prejudice.

One of the skills I had to learn and become proficient in is kissing a man. I had never kissed a man. Will Smith did it in his movies, so did Jake Gyllenhaal, and I figured it was my time. So it was me and Steve Carell – fantastic.

I’m just changing the game because I know what the fans want and the people want ‚cause I’m a fan of hip-hop.

I’m not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues.

I think, first of all, I don’t think people understand Ice Cube’s body of work. Ice Cube is a, and I hate to use the word ‚urban‘ but – when you think of Judd Apatow, and a person who’s launched so many careers, Ice Cube has done that for so many comedians, you know?

You’ve gotta understand that with branding and the way things are promoted, in our day and age, your older movie stars are not reachable or accessible because they’re not a part of the whole social media world.

I know I’m more on television, and I’m more recognisable than maybe even the players because they run and train, but I just stand there, and my face does all these funny things that everyone can see all the time.

In California, they don’t throw their garbage away – they make it into TV shows.

The movies are the only business where you can go out front and applaud yourself.

You can close more business in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.

You can’t be in politics unless you can walk in a room and know in a minute who’s for you and who’s against you.

People who work for me know that family comes first. And I’m fortunate to have a family that is very supportive of the work I do, so I don’t have to live two separate lives.

Using e-mail, I can communicate with scientists all over the world.

I think some of my colleagues‘ spicier lines are distracting. They draw attention away from what the justice is trying to say.

When you’re doing a film and the majority of the film is cast black, for me, it’s most important to get people to view those movies as just movies, as just good movies. At the end of the day, regardless of the color of the cast, we’re all doing the same thing in this business: trying to make a good film.

I don’t think the money people in Hollywood have ever thought I was normal, but I am dedicated to my work and that’s what counts.

I want to be an executive producer.

I have no interest in Shakespeare and all that British nonsense… I just wanted to get famous and all the rest is hogwash.

It’s very intense to be in front of a live audience. It’s just an amazing experience. It’s dangerous. Everything out there is heightened. The bad stuff is extra-worse. The silences are extra-silent. The good stuff is amazing. It’s electric when you walk out there. For 90 minutes, you’re on this other planet.

You have to look for teachers. If you want to be a mechanic, go hang out with mechanics.

Social media is called social media for a reason. It lends itself to sharing rather than horn-tooting.

Brad and I have never wanted our kids to be actors, but we also want them to be around film and be a part of Mommy and Daddy’s life and for it not to be kept from them, either. We just want them to have a good, healthy relationship with it.

We want Facebook to be one of the best places people can go to learn how to build stuff. If you want to build a company, nothing better than jumping in and trying to build one. But Facebook is also great for entrepreneurs/hackers. If people want to come for a few years and move on and build something great, that’s something we’re proud of.

Really, who you are is defined by the people who you know – not even the people that you know, but the people you spend time with and the people that you love and the people that you work with. I guess we show your friends in your profile, but that’s kind of different from the information you put in your profile.

This may sound a little bit idealistic, but when I go to my blog, my Facebook page, my Twitter account, I talk to different people from all over the world, and you see how it’s easy to establish a dialogue.

I know that some actors and directors like to have intensity on set. I don’t, particularly. Certainly, if they want that, that’s fine, but I can’t work like that.

How do people relate to movies now, when they’re on portable devices or streaming them? It’s not as much about going to the movies. That experience has changed.

I haven’t gone out of my way to seek advice from people I don’t know.

I laugh all the time – at things, people, stuff, whatever. But, I don’t laugh onstage because then it’s serious business.

I wanna thank MTV and the VMAs for choosing me to be a part of the show because, on this show, if you not an icon or upcomin‘ icon, you’re not on the show, you know?

I personally don’t like to go see romantic comedies. But people do want to see them, and they seem to want to see me in them.

I think the personal relationships I established mattered in terms of what I was able to get done. And I did bring women’s issues to the center of our foreign policy.

In Los Angeles, everyone is a star.

There are no record companies in Waikiki.

The dominant theory coming out of Hollywood is that peoples‘ attention spans are getting shorter and shorter and they need more stimulation.

I know that a large part of my fan base is gay. They’ve shown me love from the start. I mean in this industry, everyone from my glam people to my dancers are gay. You can’t be homophobic in this line of work – I’m a pop star!

Actors know, with me they aren’t going to be allowed to rehearse a scene for a couple of hours and then get away with doing 25 takes before we get it right. So they come with their full bag of tricks.

I’m already the face of the UFC, plus the face of boxing, WWE, and Hollywood.

You hear about actors being late and all that sort of stuff, but you never find that with an actor who’s directed, because an actor who’s directed understands all the problems your production is going through.