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Daily Inspiration Quote by Angela Bassett

"I like the nice guys. I like when they show the stories, the human element behind it all"

About this Quote

Bassett’s praise of “nice guys” isn’t naivete; it’s a quiet rebuke to an entertainment ecosystem trained to reward spectacle, swagger, and the clean efficiency of archetypes. When she says she likes “when they show the stories,” she’s pointing to a disappearing craft skill: the willingness to make masculinity legible as interior life rather than performance. “Nice” here doesn’t mean bland. It means men written with empathy, restraint, and moral friction - characters who don’t bulldoze the scene to prove they’re the protagonist.

The phrase “the human element behind it all” carries the real charge. Bassett has built a career in roles that demand both authority and vulnerability, often inside genres that can flatten people into symbols: the regal mother, the unbreakable leader, the long-suffering spouse. She knows how easily media turns lived experience into headline behavior - the scandal, the outburst, the “iconic” moment - and how much more difficult it is to dramatize the quieter motives underneath. She’s advocating for storytelling that refuses the shortcut.

There’s also industry subtext: a plea for more generous scripts and more emotionally literate men on screen, especially opposite women who are too often positioned as plot devices or emotional caretakers. Bassett’s line reads like a casting preference, but it’s really a values statement. She’s asking for narratives that treat decency as dramatic material, not a lack of edge.

Quote Details

TopicMovie
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Bassett, Angela. (2026, January 17). I like the nice guys. I like when they show the stories, the human element behind it all. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-like-the-nice-guys-i-like-when-they-show-the-36944/

Chicago Style
Bassett, Angela. "I like the nice guys. I like when they show the stories, the human element behind it all." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-like-the-nice-guys-i-like-when-they-show-the-36944/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I like the nice guys. I like when they show the stories, the human element behind it all." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-like-the-nice-guys-i-like-when-they-show-the-36944/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Angela Bassett (born August 16, 1958) is a Actress from USA.

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