Michael Clarke Duncan

( When Michael took Hanks hand in The Green Mile) Michael Clarke Duncan: We did one of those scenes where I take his hand and show him some things, ... and I remember Frank saying, 'Cut,' and everybody was just silent for a couple of minutes. Everybody was kind of crying. Tom was still crying. I was still crying. Frank didn't even know what to say. That was a moment I will never forget

( When running into one of his fans) Michael Clarke Duncan: He turned around and he looked at me and he said, 'You are exactly what I pictured in my mind that John Coffey looked like,' ... All my questions went away.

(about keeping his emotions in between takes) Michael Clarke Duncan: You know, the only thing that was distracting was when you have your emotion up and they're changing the lights or they're changing the camera angles. You have to realize the emotion has to stay up. You can't go in the corner and say, "I'm gonna cool out for a minute. Let me know when you want me to cry again." I can't do that.

(on why his mother thought he would be an actor) Michael Clarke Duncan: Being stupid at home. I was very stupid. I was very clumsy. I was always joking around with my older sister and I guess what really happened... My mother wanted to be an actress when she was coming up, and nobody ever helped her. And I guess she saw something in me.

(on being nominated for an Oscar) Michael Clarke Duncan: It's just something that washes over you. It's a day by day process. It hasn't even really struck me yet. People talk about Michael Clarke Duncan and the Oscar. That's just weird to me. To me, I just hope that I'm not in some hospital somewhere, in a coma, and somebody's gonna say, man, you were in a coma for six months and I'll be like "No! I was in the Green Mile!"

Michael Clarke Duncan: The first thing I do is let people know I'm not Ving Rhames. Once I do that, everything else is cool. Every place I go, people think I'm Ving Rhames. They're like, "I love Pulp Fiction, I love Rosewood, I love Mission: Impossible". And I'm like, "Uh, that's not me". So if I can get people past that, the Oscar doesn't matter. If I can get them to know my name, Michael Clarke Duncan, and not Ving Rhames, man, that will be enough for me.

(on missing the opportunity to guest star on 24, after meeting Keifer Sutherland) Michael Clarke Duncan: I became this dribbling, big, black fool and he was like, 'Okay, I hope we work together'. Never heard from him since.

Michael Clarke Duncan: I always say YCDA: you can do anything. If you want to be a successful actor, you have to believe in yourself more than anything else, and don't let anybody tell you that you cannot do it, because you can.

Michael Clarke Duncan: My mother told me years ago, "You're gonna be an actor." So I could not play football, I could not wrestle, I couldn't do anything physical but play basketball. And I wasn't really that good. I'd just kind of knock people around on the court, that was my little claim to fame.

Michael Clarke Duncan: My sister used to say I had a frail chest and she'd beat me up all the time.