I'm looking to infect people with my positivity. I think I can start an epidemic.

Willard Carroll Smith, Jr. (born September 25, 1968), aka Will Smith, is an Academy Award nominated actor, multiple Grammy winning hip hop artist, and a former comedian from the United States. He is one of a small group of people who have enjoyed huge success in all the three major entertainment media in the United States: film, television, and the music industry.

Quotes

• It's great to be black in Hollywood. When a black actor does something, it seems new and different just by virtue of the fact that he's black.
  • "Will Smith" article in Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies (2001 edition), p. 406

• I feel like I could run for President. People often laugh, but if I set my mind to it, within the next 15 years I could be in the White House.
  • "Will Smith" article in Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies (2001 edition), p. 406

• Even Hitler didn't wake up going, "let me do the most evil thing I can do today." I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was "good." Stuff like that just needs reprogramming. … I wake up every day full of hope, positive that every day is going to be better than yesterday. And I'm looking to infect people with my positivity. I think I can start an epidemic.
  • As quoted in "Will Smith : My Work Ethic Will Make Me A Legend" by Siobhan Synnot in Daily Record (22 December 2007)
  • This was reported in various new stories as if Smith had declared that "Adolf Hitler was essentially a good person."
  • Smith responded to such misinterpretations in further statements:
  • It is an awful and disgusting lie. It speaks to the dangerous power of an ignorant person with a pen. I am incensed and infuriated to have to respond to such ludicrous misinterpretation. … Adolf Hitler was a vile, heinous, vicious killer responsible for one of the greatest acts of evil committed on this planet.
    • "Will Smith Explains Hitler Quote" by Karen Salkin in People (26 December 2007); Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League accepting Smith's clarifications stated: "If anything, this episode serves as a reminder of the power of words, and how words can be twisted by those with hate and bigotry in their hearts to suit their own world view."

• The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is I’m not afraid to die on a treadmill, right? I will run. I will not be out-worked, period. You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me, you might be all of those things you got it on me in nine categories. But if we get on the treadmill together, right, there’s two things. You’re getting off first, or I’m going to die. It’s really that simple, right?
  • "Actor-musician Will Smith" transcript from interview on The Tavis Smiley Show (13 December 2007)

External links

• Official site
• Will Smith on IMDb
• Will Smith at Rolling Stone
• "Will Smith Interview : Will Power" at Reader's Digest