Top 66 Jimmy Smits Quotes

I work out, but I’m not doing it specifically because I show my butt on TV.

My comfort zone has always been in an ensemble-type atmosphere.

I have and will continue to vigorously pursue opportunities in all mediums.

When you’re doing 22 shows on network television, the writers are going on vapors towards the end and, as an actor, you’re just trashed by the end.

It’s less about the physical training, in the end, than it is about the mental preparation: boxing is a chess game. You have to be skilled enough and have trained hard enough to know how many different ways you can counterattack in any situation, at any moment.

I never thought television would or could be a long-term commitment.

I have no tattoos at all – it was a huge undertaking for me in the ’80s to let my parents know I was piercing my ear when I did ‘L.A. Law.’

I grew up in New York City, and I’ve got wonderful memories of the Fourth of July fireworks.

What we need to focus on is not that we’re not nominated, but that we have many more Latinos that are in prominent positions on shows all across the dial than ever before.

I’m not a policy wonk – I’m somewhere between being undecided and a surrogate.

I had opportunities to stay on shows for long periods of time, and maybe financially that would have been good, but I feel good about trying to keep doing things that are a little bit different than what I’ve done.

Growing up in New York, we lived all around the city depending on our economic circumstance. I also lived in Puerto Rico for a number of years.

I’m not going to leave one of the best shows to do another TV show.

I used to wear sneakers with those nice suits because I wanted Victor Sifuentes to have a bounce in the courtroom.

I always grapple with myself, from job to job, ‘Is this going to make an impact in some way?’

As an actor, you think to yourself, ‘I want to do good work,’ but you also want the work that you do to make an impact in some way.

I don’t know… I don’t think you can trust any of Kurt’s characters. That’s how Mr. Sutter operates: nothing is what it seems.

I get my jolt of energy in New York. I get mi familia vibe in New York.

I think education was the key for me, and that’s what I tell kids. That base in the classics gave me something to springboard from, which I wouldn’t have had if I’d come out to Los Angeles early and been guest punk of the week on ‘Hill Street Blues.’

Women think the people that I play are smoldering and dangerous. I look in the mirror, and I go, ‘I don’t get it.’

Nude scenes aren’t fun.

The hits and the misses. I just want to keep the at-bats solid.

If you’re given gifts or blessings in your life, it’s up to you to help the guy coming up behind you.

For me, the bottom line is what’s on the page.

I’m usually very analytical when I’m prepping stuff: real into the head thing.

Every actor has to deal with what’s on his plate, and I try to deal with doing the best work possible with the most challenging scripts. I don’t base it on whether it’s a feature film or a TV-movie or cable.

I’m an actor. I love to act. That’s my job. I’ll leave the politicking to others.

I went to Brooklyn College as an education major. It was a big deal in the family, but really, I was living for Mom and Dad.

In my college years, I worked as a union labor organizer. I was just one of the many workers trying to do my part to help the community.

Education is the key in so many ways.

Unfortunately, considering that we Latinos are really big for movie companies when they have blockbuster releases or new cable shows, when it comes to the dynamic of supporting our own product, it leaves much to be desired.

I am very Latino in everything I am and I do, but there’s a part of me that’s also something else. I’m reflective of the way this country’s gonna be in the next 40 years. More multicultural is what we’ll see.

For minority actors, developing our own projects has to be the eventual path. We have a lot of stories to tell and a really unique voice. But none of that is going to be heard as long as we’re just the hired hands, acting.

There are no right and wrong ways to work in this business, but there are some basic common-sense practices. Work very, very hard and always be prepared; never give up; and once you get the job, give them more than they ever expected: – Shine!

You can’t get so serious as to not realize that what we do is entertainment, but when you have the chance to provoke thought or advance discussion on a topic, it’s just the icing on the cake.

You have to find what makes you stable in the storm. Then, no matter what’s happening round you, no matter what the hype or the publicity, you can still manage to make leaps in your work as an artist.

There are some things you have to give up to the higher power.

Everything in moderation, like calories.

I started out in the theater, and my background is classical. I’d love to be in a film version of a Shakespeare play.

The great thing about working in cable is that, since the season is truncated – we only do 12 shows – the writers are more at ease in terms of mapping out the trajectory of the story and the characters.

When I grew up, we went to Coney Island and Central Park. We’d find our way to the water and watch the fireworks.

We tend to think of World War II and all the atrocities that happened, and people say, ‘Never again.’ But these things are still happening. The Amnesty International files are big.

‘West Wing’ was a show about politics.

Michael C. Hall is an incredibly detailed actor who can convey so much with just an eyebrow.

As an actor, I just want to keep mixing it up.

Of course you draw from yourself, but the artistic nourishment you want to get is be versatile, do something different, and I think I got a chance to do that in a lot of different ways.

At first, I took theater courses on the side. Then, theater became my minor; then it was my major.

When I sit down and sign up for something, I vet where the people are coming from.

That ‘who’s the sexiest’ business is a crock that the media cooked up to sell magazines, so while I say thank you very much, I don’t put much stock in it.

Celebrity hits like a bomb.

I save the rage for the stage.

I feel a responsibility to try and give back. I see young people out there who are trained, and any way I can help them and give them an opportunity is gratifying.

We’re at a point right now in our development in this country – setting the immigration issue aside – that you can’t ignore the sheer population of us in metropolitan areas all across the country, of how significant Latino-ness is in the United States.

I don’t want to have the bounds put on me in terms of mediums.

I’ve been in California for about 15 years now. You’re always in your car and insulated. I miss New York so much.

I’m socially awkward in life, and that’s one of the reasons why I do what I do. I’m more about interpreting other people’s words.

I wasn’t a great student, but I was interested in this theater thing, and I could spend hours in the library researching why the cuffs in the 18th century had four buttons. It was my handle.

There just aren’t enough positive portrayals of Latino life in film.

With the advent of cable and such, you guys are calling it the golden age of TV in terms of the writing and stuff. But it’s like different branches of a big tree that TV has become.

I’ve been very lucky to work on a wide variety of projects, including two long-run and top-10 dramatic television shows. That is why it is so important to offer a helping hand to the next generation of young Latinos coming up behind me.

When we are out there selling a new picture, when did it become part of the deal that you have to sell the family? To use the juicy part of your life to get attention? I’m not blaming the reporters. It’s the system.

California has been very good to me in terms of the professional arena.

I was in Puerto Rico going to school, and it was very jarring for me. ‘Traumatic’ is the only way that I can say it. Kids were making fun of me: ‘Oh, you’re a Yankee.’ And I acted out a lot. A lot. But looking back, and through a little bit of therapy, everything I am has to do with that time.

I’ve always strived to keep mixing it up, keep doing different things, and work in all different parts of our business.

I don’t feel I have to acknowledge how I’m doing by an award.

The Latino population has become such a presence. We are part of the American tapestry in a very profound way, in every area you can think of, and are very significant in popular culture.