Latest Michael K. Williams Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I love dealing with drama. I'm drawn to the painful side of storytelling, more so. I feel like that's where you get the most honesty from. My laughter comes from irony. You laugh at my pain. I can't look for the laugh 'cause I'll fall flat on my face. I like the type of laughter that comes from irony like, "Of course, it's sunny today when I wore a mink coat!" I'm that guy. I was raised on Benny Hill and The Odd Couple and The Honeymooners.

  Michael K. Williams

  Laughter, Honesty, Couple

  Source: collider.com

• I understand pain very well, so I look for that in a role. If the characters are well-written, don't tell nobody, but I'll do the damn thing for free. I'm serious. It's the writing. I love beautifully flawed characters.

  Michael K. Williams

  Pain, Writing, Character

  Source: collider.com

• At the core of every person or belief, there's a pain and a thorn. There's always something, whether it's a physical thing, a health thing, or an I wish I had someone or something in my life thing. We all know some level of pain, so I like to see the ugliness of characters. It's a side that we show, only when we strip down in the bathroom mirror.

  Michael K. Williams

  Pain, Character, Wish

  Source: collider.com

• For me, the best experience is to get to watch all of these different actors that come to the different seasons and bring these A-game performances. I'm just like, "Wow, can you do that again, so that I can take notes? How did you do that?!" That's the greatest joy, in doing a show like 'Hap and Leonard: Mucho Mojo'. I get to watch all of these thespians come rip it a new asshole.

  Michael K. Williams

  Rip, Joy, Different

  Source: collider.com

• When you love someone unconditionally, you go to war for them, and they do that for each other. They know they can call each other when they need each other. In this day and age, everyone needs a friend like in Hap and Leonard.

  Michael K. Williams

  War, Age, This Day

  Source: collider.com

• There are worse things in life to be attached to then seven seasons of Hap and Leonard: Mucho Mojo. It's in Atlanta, and we shoot during the fourth quarter of the year, so the weather is great. It's good Christmas money. I'm telling good stories with someone who I admire. Life could be worse. It could be a whole lot worse, at this stage in the game.

  Michael K. Williams

  Seven, Admire

  Source: collider.com

• My thing is to gain the respect as an actor, as a professional, and the friendship and everything else will happen from there.

  Michael K. Williams

  Actors, Gains, Happens

  Source: www.ebony.com

• I had a very dear friend of mine, ton of potential, and he fell ill with bipolar disorder. And he was put in the penal system. And that was just adding fuel to the fire. He got worse. He came out and he's never been the same since. He can't seem to get his life back. And this is a man who could have had Hollywood in the palm of his hand. A lot of my inspiration and aspirations for wanting to be an actor, I owe to him. Between the disorder and him being put in jail, it just snuffed all of that away from him.

  Michael K. Williams

  Inspiration, Men, Fire

  Source: www.ebony.com

• My goal is to end mass incarceration and change the laws to stop locking up low-level, nonviolent drug charges. Stop charging drug addicts as criminals.

  Michael K. Williams

  Law, Goal, Drug

  Source: www.ebony.com

• Addiction is a health issue, not a social issue, not a crime, not a legal issue.

  Michael K. Williams

  Issues, Addiction, Crime

  Source: www.ebony.com

• I grew in a community where I saw the process of how one becomes a drug dealer or a gang banger or a stick-up kid. There's a series of events that happen. People don't just wake up and decide they wanna be that.

  Michael K. Williams

  Kids, People, Community

  Source: www.ebony.com

• My job is to bring to life the character, not to put the words on the paper.

  Michael K. Williams

  Jobs, Character, Paper

  Source: collider.com

• For me, my past characters been hard, the way they died, being murdered, the sadness that goes around, the death. It's a very hard thing to do.

  Michael K. Williams

  Character, Sadness, Past

  Source: collider.com

• You have to put your character to rest after x amount of years.

  Michael K. Williams

  Character, Years, Amount

  Source: collider.com

• I have a very healthy appetite for good writing and good characters. Having weak writing is my biggest fear.

  Michael K. Williams

  Writing, Character, Healthy

  Source: collider.com

• Ending a television character that you've been, especially someone like Omar Little, it hurts. For me, it's a huge thing. You feel like a part of you is gone.

  Michael K. Williams

  Hurt, Character, Gone

  Source: collider.com

• Music's been part of my entire life. It's in my DNA.

  Michael K. Williams

  Dna

  Source: collider.com

• I absolutely miss dancing. Don't want to do it for a living, I'm getting old, I can't move like I used to. If I had the opportunity to do something on Broadway or a musical, I would jump at the opportunity.

  Michael K. Williams

  Moving, Opportunity, Dancing

  Source: collider.com

• I'm good with all my roles, I've never had a bad role.

  Michael K. Williams

  Roles

  Source: collider.com

• I'm looking for diversity, all my characters may or may not be on the wrong side of the tracks. It doesn't mean that they're all the same.

  Michael K. Williams

  Character, Mean, Track

  Source: collider.com

• I am a dark-skinned, nappy-headed, scar-faced dude from the streets of Brooklyn. I can't hide from being who I am. It's all over my face.

  Michael K. Williams

  Dark, Who I Am, Brooklyn

• My dancing came about as a way to be cool, actually. I knew early on that I was not a street kid. I didn't have the moxie, what it took to run the streets with the dudes that I grew up wanting to emulate. But I had a huge need to be accepted, so I found that I could be the party king. I did drugs really well, and I partied really well.

  Michael K. Williams

  Running, Kings, Party

  Source: www.motherjones.com

• My childhood was pretty colorful; I like to use the word turbulent. But it was a great time to grow up, the '70s and '80s in Brooklyn, East Flatbush. It was culturally diverse: You had Italian culture, American culture, the Caribbean West Indian culture, the Hasidic Jewish culture. Everything was kind of like right there in your face. A lot of violence, you know, especially toward the '80s the neighborhood got really violent, but it made me who I am, it made me strong.

  Michael K. Williams

  Strong, Growing Up, Italian

  Source: www.motherjones.com

• I don't believe in typecasting. Just because all my characters may come from the other side of the tracks doesn't mean they are all the same. You don't stereotype people and generalize people, everyone's different.

  Michael K. Williams

  Believe, Mean, Character

  Source: www.esquire.com

• No one wakes up one day and decides they want to become a drug dealer or they want to be a stick-up kid. Those decisions are made after a series of events have happened in one's life.

  Michael K. Williams

  Kids, Decision, Drug

  Source: www.esquire.com