Daily Inspiration Quote by Eriq La Salle

Ownership is doing a lot of emotional work here. La Salle’s line is blunt to the point of redundancy, but that repetition is the tell: he’s not trying to sound philosophical, he’s trying to draw a boundary. “It’s my company” isn’t just a fact; it’s a claim to agency in an industry where actors are routinely treated as interchangeable talent and “creative control” often turns out to be a polite fiction. The second clause - “I believe in the company” - pivots from legal ownership to moral credibility, as if to preempt the suspicion that a personal banner is just vanity branding.

The most revealing part is the circular logic: “that’s why I started it.” He’s not offering a business plan; he’s offering a motive. The subtext is less “trust my vision” than “I’m tired of waiting to be chosen.” For actors, starting a company is frequently a workaround for structural limits: narrow casting, gatekept roles behind executives’ tastes, the slow grind of permissions. The line compresses that backstory into a simple justification that feels almost defensive, like he’s answering an implied challenge: Why you? Why now? Why should anyone follow?

Contextually, it echoes a broader shift in Hollywood where performers become producers to protect their taste, leverage, and longevity. It’s a statement of self-determination disguised as a modest explanation - a way of saying the work will reflect me because the infrastructure does.