Russell Simmons Quotes

I have the greatest appreciation for [producers] Matt Alvarez and Ice Cube. They put me in Friday after Next, and now this, which I hope is just the start of a long, wonderful relationship. I love the urban comedies, because they keep you famous, keep you having fun, and keep you in love with the business. Those are my roots. I'll always love doing those.

All my friends were black and Mexican. I was the only white kid in our group and had to work hard to be accepted. Year after year, we'd breakdance and we all became close and they labeled me "Vanilla" - like "Hey, Vanilla" and they knew I hated it, so of course they kept calling me it.

I would love to do some crazy action or even a real romantic comedy. I think that would be really exciting.

I love the urban comedies, because they keep you famous, keep you having fun, and keep you in love with the business. Those are my roots. I'll always love doing those.

It's so hard for me to kind of fall in love with comedy, but if something comes my way... I mean, I loved 'Weird,' I thought that was a really fun character.

It's too bad that there aren't as many light comedies around in the movies as there were when I was making pictures like 'The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.' The boys are just not writing them. Many writers are more serious now than they used to be, and that's showing up in all phases of entertainment.

I'm interested not just in projects that I'll be starring in, but producing film and TV that's really quality and great for adults; and when I say 'great for adults,' it doesn't mean without humor, because I'm also interested in doing comedy.

I used to joke for years that I was a black man. I adopted the black culture, the black race. I married a black woman, and I had black kids. I always considered myself a 'brother.'

I was lucky to start working when German cinema was having an interesting moment. Now the quality is going downhill again because they're insisting on doing comedies. We should know by now that we make good cars but we're not the funniest people.

It's hard to really get that excited about movies. Think about it like this: how many good comedy movies come out a year? Maybe one or two? And then, in those movies, what are the chances that there's a character that I'm the best fit to play? It's really small!

I want to get into the educational DNA of American culture. I want 10 percent of the common culture, more or less, to be black.

It's just so hard to get movies made, especially comedies.

I love doing comedy. Absolutely love it. After 'Wedding Crashers,' people suddenly realized that it was something I could do.

I think people respond to truth. 'Straight Outta Compton' made $60 million over the weekend, right? That's not just a black audience. 'Empire' grew every single week. That's not just a black audience. Black culture is American culture, you know what I mean? They're becoming more and more one in the same.

Negroes have not thoroughly assimilated.

With comedies, it's been very gratifying to be able to clock in, laugh all day, and then clock out.

The Huxtables laughed and bonded and debated and lip-synced. They were glamorous and simple and extraordinarily human. And affluent. And educated. And so many different kinds of black. You'd think that all of that would make them the Howard University of African-American family life. But white people wanted to matriculate, too.

I think in every 'Housefull,' we keep making most dialogues on set. I think it's been a lot of fun. I hope we make 'Housefull 50' also one day.

There's so much black content on multiple platforms, and it's all getting great ratings. If you think about the Oscars snubbing 'Straight Outta Compton,' in a way, that kicked all of this off.

Man, I had a good time working on 'Grown Ups 2.' First of all, when I read the script, it is hands-down the funniest script I've ever read. It's laugh-out-loud funny.

Judd Apatow is amazing, and everything he does is so cool.

'Vicky Donor' proved that the audience was waiting for well-scripted funny films.

I have worked in both comedy films and romance.

I want to make out-and-out comedy movies.

'Housefull' was a mass entertainer. Kids loved that film and they asked me when I was coming back. I feel I can't tell them that I am coming back as Baba 3G in a sex comedy, 'Kya Super Kool Hai Hum.'