Top 75 Chadwick Boseman Quotes

There’s nothing more stressful than your stomach growling. But interestingly enough, some of my best writing came when I was poor and hungry – living off water and oatmeal, mind clear.

I got scars from every film I’ve done, every TV show.

I don’t read reviews, but I do get feedback from my peers and people I know, like other actors and directors and producers.

I know that baseball players have certain rituals or habits that they develop, because sometimes it becomes somewhat superstitious if they get on a streak and want to do the same thing over and over again.

Sometimes when you’re acting, you only need a little bit of something to sort of channel or, you know, transport into a place.

There are some stories I want to tell that I think it’d be cool to see an African-American dude do.

As a director, it is important to understand the actor’s process.

I try to look at every role the same way, regardless of whether the character is real or the character is a fantasy. I always start from myself, because you have to know yourself first.

People don’t want to experience change; they just want to wake up, and it’s different.

The thing I love about Marvel in general is that they deal with people. They deal with the human being first: Who is inside the suit? Who is the person that obtained this power or this ability?

I can definitely dance, but pedestrian dancing.

People have said, ‘You don’t need to do any more biopics. You don’t need to play any more real people.’ I don’t agree with that.

I’m not afraid to work.

I’d taken, like, maybe some African dance classes a couple of times, but I wasn’t a musical theater person at all.

I studied at Howard. I studied at Oxford.

I played Little League baseball, but I also played basketball. Basketball was my primary sport. When you play basketball seriously, a lot of times, through the summer season, you continue playing. So that replaced me playing baseball.

People have said, ‘You don’t need to do any more biopics. You don’t need to play any more real people.’ I don’t agree with that.

Some people would view Jackie Robinson as a very safe African-American, a docile figure who had a tendency to try to get along with everyone, and when you look at his history, you learn that he has this fire that allows him to take this punishment but also figure out savvy ways of giving it back.

Each movie you do about a real person is like a painting, and you choose certain things in the painting that you want to pull out and you want to show.

I think there’s a difference between a working actor, a movie star and a celebrity. They’re all three different things.

I’m not so keen on letting my car drive itself.

For me, being a complete artist means not necessarily just being in front of the camera, but being behind the camera or being the originator or creator of something.

Every year, Hollywood is looking for that new, white leading man and new white starlet that audiences fall in love with. But they’re not looking for the next Denzel Washington, Will Smith or Sidney Poitier.

In TV, you’re basically shooting an episode in 10 to 14 days; 14 days is a luxury situation. And in film, you have anywhere from a month to three months, or it can be even longer than that, depending on what the production is.

Even after I became involved in theater and involved in TV and film, I had this sort of idea that Hollywood was off limits. There was something about L.A., the mystique of it and fear of it.

A superhero movie is only as great as its villains.

Some people would view Jackie Robinson as a very safe African-American, a docile figure who had a tendency to try to get along with everyone, and when you look at his history, you learn that he has this fire that allows him to take this punishment but also figure out savvy ways of giving it back.

There are some stories I want to tell that I think it’d be cool to see an African-American dude do.

When they call you and say, ‘So you want to play ‘Black Panther?” if you know what ‘Black Panther’ is, there’s no way in the world you’re going to say no because there’s a lot of opportunity for magic to happen.

As soon as I came to L.A., things immediately shifted for me. I was now actually here with the people who were making the decisions; I wasn’t out in New York sending in tapes to L.A.

One of the first things I was taught as an actor was, ‘Don’t judge the character.’

The industry looks for white actors and actresses, but it’s not the same for black actors. We have to really put the work in.

Nobody has to give me permission to write.

As a director, it is important to understand the actor’s process.

Guys are natural problem solvers – they like to have strategies.

The projects that I end up doing, that I want to be involved with in any way, have always been projects that will be impactful, for the most part, to my people – to black people.

You have to cherish things in a different way when you know the clock is ticking, you are under pressure.

Guys are natural problem solvers – they like to have strategies.

The thing I love about Marvel in general is that they deal with people. They deal with the human being first: Who is inside the suit? Who is the person that obtained this power or this ability?

People don’t want to experience change; they just want to wake up, and it’s different.

We live in a world where people can ridicule you at the push of the button. They can question you at the push of a button.

I love all types of music. Jazz, classical, blues, rock, hip-hop. I often write scripts to instrumentals like a hip-hop artist. Music inspires me to write. It’s either music playing or completely silent. Sometimes distant sound fuels you. In New York there’s always a buzzing beneath you.

I thought I would draw or paint or be an architect. I was always drawing portraits. My mom put me in art classes in the summer.

I said yes too much. I said yes to certain projects that weren’t for me. It was somebody else’s vision and somebody else’s dream and somebody else’s artistic endeavor, but it didn’t necessarily fit in my grand scheme.

I would go through these cycles of being really, really focused on work, and not being around anyone, to being around everyone. And that could be distracting. It was nothing or everything.

I have my own personal masticating juicer at home. I sort of picked it up from friends a few years ago, and it just gives me more energy. Mostly green juice. Spinach, celery, kale, green apples, lemon, sometimes ginger – you know, like, nasty, euuugghhhh!

When it comes down to it, I’d rather have an action figure than a Golden Globe.

I played Little League baseball, but I also played basketball. Basketball was my primary sport. When you play basketball seriously, a lot of times, through the summer season, you continue playing. So that replaced me playing baseball.

I don’t have a smart house. My house is very dumb.

I’m an artist. Artists don’t need permission to work. Regardless of whether I’m acting or not, I write. I write when I’m tired in fact, because I believe your most pure thoughts surface.

I was raised in a sort of village. I have a huge family, and I think there is strength in that. It helped me to deal with some of the complications of living in the South because I always felt like I belonged, no matter what.

I can’t even imagine something being more fun than playing James Brown onstage.

The only difference between a hero and the villain is that the villain chooses to use that power in a way that is selfish and hurts other people.

Even after I became involved in theater and involved in TV and film, I had this sort of idea that Hollywood was off limits. There was something about L.A., the mystique of it and fear of it.

When you play characters, you shouldn’t just be putting on their characteristics – you should be finding it inside yourself.

There’s nothing more stressful than your stomach growling. But interestingly enough, some of my best writing came when I was poor and hungry – living off water and oatmeal, mind clear.

When you make movies, it’s such an important period of time, when you look back at each one of them. You want to be able to say that you did something that was a challenge and that changed you.

Once you start getting big roles as an actor, everything pays. So what are you making decisions on? It’s about the director or the script or whatever. But before you reach that point, you’re taking jobs with, say, a theater company, in spite of the fact that it’s not paying your bills.

I’m from Anderson, S.C., but I grew up in the South. So I know what it is to ride to school and have Confederate flags flying from trucks in front of me and behind me, to see a parking lot full of people with Confederate flags and know what that means. I’ve been stopped by police for no reason.

I might have had too many friends in my twenties.

Nobody has to give me permission to write.

I majored in directing. However, I did spend some time at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, so I am somewhat well-versed in African Studies.