Giancarlo Esposito Quotations

I try to be careful with my persuasiveness. When my heart is really behind it, and when I have no ulterior motive, then I know I'm truly persuasive.

To be a character actor is to be open, to be a chameleon.

I don't think anyone is black and white and I think we change our minds and our attitudes about certain things as we grow to our maturity.

I always wanted to be a boy scout but was too poor. Couldn't do it.

What I love about 'Breaking Bad' is the reflection of many people's - it's more real in terms of people have faults, people have character traits that they don't like about themselves. It resembles more of what the human journey really is and it's less fantastic and hero-driven than other characters and shows that we watch.

There is a price to pay for most of our actions. For every action, there is a reaction.

I have from time to time been a double A or triple A personality. I'm not anymore. I'm more lenient on myself.

I'm not too into fast food, but you know if I was, it would be chicken.

Yoga is a big part of my life now. There's not a day that goes by where I don't do an Asana and mediation practice.

After 'Breaking Bad,' people are very frightened of who I am. They back away from me on the street.

I love to read, and I like the fact that there's some silence in my life.

I can fish from a stick and a string.

I feel that we have come a long way as American people, and we have to start looking at ourselves as human beings.

I think many people have contradictions to them and I love characters that deal with those contradictions.

I'm a big fan of period pieces, and I'm a big fan of the old-time westerns.

I'm not someone who is a fan of a lot of violence.

It's certain that the death of an actor can be on a television screen playing the same thing every week.

Middle-class people are becoming desperate. It can cause a moral man to break bad.

People aren't able to make decisions anymore because there's too many choices within that decision.

People who have not done their research on me do not know that I am European, born in Copenhagen, Denmark to an Italian father from Napoli and a mother from Alabama who was singing opera and went to Europe, met my dad, fell in love, and then moved back to Rome, where I was raised, between Rome and Hamburg.

The more I get connected to my own breath and my own yogic experience and my own prayer and my own idea, the ideas that have existed for so long - that we all belong to each other and we could live a deeper spiritual existence - the more I get connected to that, the more I shun this world.

When I perform on stage, you have to remember my performance or buy another ticket to the party! In television and film, you can see it over and over again.

I feel that sometimes, holding yourself as black, saying that is your sole identity, can sometimes stand in your way of being a member of the humanity of man, being a member of the family of the divine.

I often think about, 'How do we return to a simpler way of living? Is there some way that we can start to think of each other as human beings again, instead of worshiping money, instead of worshiping electronics, instead of worshiping getting ahead just for me?'

I believe acting is very physical, and when you have to fight or do those kinds of things, it takes a lot of respect not to allow yourself to go off and hurt yourself or someone else.

When you're with another actor and doing something very intense, often you pull them over to your side, or they pull you over to theirs. But if you stay in your own truth, you can play that perfect tennis match. I always want to bring my power, but not in a way that eliminates the whole game!

When you're speaking Spanish, you're thinking in a different way.

There is a dream that the world could be at peace, but that requires that all the folks with arms disarm, or take over all the arms and allow us to trust them.

I feel that if you can transcend the color of your skin, with your talent, why carry that as a badge or a label?

I feel that our stories are cross culturally irrelevant, and I'm a member if a larger community of people who have no boundaries in terms of color or in terms of how I look at other people and their stories.

My rule is simply "love what you do". That certainly has brought me to the place I where am at right now. It really has been with the work.

I want a body of work; I want a good story after a good story.

It feels amazing to work with writers that write really well.

If I can look at each character that I am given and create them in a different way from the last role, I'm happy.

I'm interested in spirituality and in religion and our relationship to the divine.

I'm impatient sometimes.

I like to always wash the slate clean, and reinvigorate my spirit to be connected to the characters that I am doing. I am finding new ways to allow myself to soar beyond the parameters of what the writers have written. My key is to commit, and love your character.

I never like to refer back to anything I've done when I'm working on a character, even if that character has the same occupation.

Cable was a blessing for me. Thank god, I've done a show that's going to be iconic. So, if I screw up, it's all right because I already have something that's going to be iconic.

I first felt successful when I was 13 and in a show called Seesaw. I came offstage and heard the applause of the theater audience and felt a sense of accomplishment. Around that time my role model for success was Burt Lancaster. He was one of the first ac.

I can only control what I do. I can try to suggest and be open, but trust is the key.

Well, with each character that I play in my life as an actor, I try to figure out how to find the challenge.

I love the smell of fried chicken.

It was amazing to be nominated by the Academy who saw fit for me to be nominated for best supporting actor. The Critic's choice award was wonderful. I'm on cloud nine.

For me, what I try to heal is the major thing that I think all of us go through, where we came from. From our family of origin.

I look at 'Breaking Bad' as a show about the American family.

I came from a divorced mother and father, obviously mixed race.

When you have great acting partners, you hope that your reaction to them is propels you deeper into your own character.

For me, I've lived a life as an athlete.

When I listen to my scene partners and listen to their breathing allows me to be connected to them in scenes. I am not trying to multi task, not trying to talk on the phone, but in my character.

I had to work from a young age.

For me, listening to my breath in between the lines, allows me to be in deep connection to my spirit.

I know from teaching that actors want to act. Even the subtlest actors can do a little too much.

I practice yoga every day. The practice calms my spirit, and allows me to be present.

Yoga has allowed me to bring my complete spirit together, which allows me to do less, which is more.

You can never lead unless you follow.

Who told you to step on my sneakers? Who told you to walk on my side of the block? Who told you to be in my neighborhood?

My advice for achieving success is to make a career choice that reflects your passion. Then work your craft a little bit each day-even if someone's not paying you to do It. Try to balance your social life with your educational (or professional) life, and have patience.