Denzel Washington Quotes

In fact, someone was telling me that Gladiator was the one film where Ridley Scott didn't take a producer's credit. And it won. But this guy changed the industry twice; with Aliens which was a whole new way of looking at things and Blade Runner that was also a whole new way of looking at things.

I believe in God. I don't fear man, I fear God.

The Bible says "faith without works is nothing" so destiny is great, fate is great, faith is great - but you still have to work at it. I don't just sit at home and wait for it all to unfold.

I never tell anyone what to take away from a movie.

Every day, sincerely and without phoniness, Lou demonstrated by his actions how very vital it is - more than anything else - to understand and appreciate the people who work with you...Do your job well, but always remember that the people you work with are your most valuable asset. Embrace them. Honor them. Respect them" (206) - "Prescriptions for Success" by John Schuerholz

As the filmmaker, yes, I have to look out for everybody. But I don't have to know everybody's approach.

I was first introduced to August Wilson in the 80s when Charles Dutton did Ma Rainey and James Earl Jones and Courtney Vance did Fences. I've long considered August Wilson to be one of the five greatest playwrights in American history.

There's things that I can do as an actor that I couldn't do in any other form of life and I've got a strange personality. But film requires strange people, so I've got a nice comfy home.

I read the Bible every day.

Raising the standard of the work, not complaining about somebody not voting.

Acting, it's not my life, my children and my family, that's life. I'll get up every morning, God willing, for that.

I'm selfish, I think. I think an artist has to be. I'm not worried about what people think. I play the parts that I find interesting. It'd bother me more to be just pigeonholed into doing what people think is ethical or that's boring to me. I don't pick parts with that in mind, I just find interesting stories. If it's interesting to me, then I do it.

[Black people] come into the world exactly like you. It's just that there are circumstances in the culture that are dictated and put on our lives that we have to fight against.

I try to encourage actors to work harder off screen because that's where you find things.

You can’t break me because you didn’t make me.

In my humble opinion, in the nuclear world, the true enemy is war itself.

I’ve found that nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks.

Why do we close our eyes when we pray, cry, kiss, or dream? Because the most beautiful things in life are not seen but felt by the heart.

You have to grab moments when they happen. I like to improvise and ad lib.

It's important for us to tell our stories.

I and haven't been unemployed for 20 years. I'm an exception to the rule.

You don't know when you're being watched. That's one of the weird things about celebrity. It's my least favorite part of acting, celebrity.

I think the bottom of the totem pole is African-American women, or women of colour. I think they get the least opportunities in Hollywood.

Where I think the most work needs to be done is behind the camera, not in front of it.

What it taught me was forgiveness. It taught me that when people present themselves in a certain way, there's probably some back story or issue or reason for the way that they are. It's not you. It's them. And a lot of times, its about something that's completely out of their control

We just had to stay out-of-the-way [in Fences]. [August Wilson] already wrote a masterpiece. And you really don't know how it's going to work until you get it in front of an audience.

Taking the money from drug operations and all that sort of stuff is something that goes past what most of us in society would expect a policeman should do. That temptation hits the police force at the same time as the temptation to take those drugs that are readily available hits the people on the streets.

That's where you can find things and modulate your performance and give the other actors something fresh to respond to. We've probably all worked with actors who when it's suddenly your close up, they get sleepy. I don't like that. It's selfish acting, and I won't tolerate it.

You'll never see a U-Haul behind a hearse. ... Now, I've been blessed to make hundreds of millions of dollars in my life. I can't take it with me, and neither can you. It's not how much you have but what you do with what you have.

Got to be who you are in this world, no matter what.

I actually don't hang out with any celebrities. My closest friends are old friends. And my real close friends, none of them are actors.

When we shot "Cry Freedom," I wasn't even allowed in South Africa. They told me I could come but I wasn't going to leave. I had heavy death threats at that time. So we shot in Zimbabwe. In 1995, I had the privilege and the honor to meet Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela the same day: I had breakfast with Desmond Tutu and lunch with Nelson Mandela. Then I had the good fortune to have Mr. Mandela actually come to my house in California. There's been a tremendous amount of change.

Dakota Fanning is a child, but she is a wonderful actor. I don't know what a child actor is. She's an actor who's a child.

I work hard for the audience. It's entertainment. I don't need validation.

I've been fortunate. I don't pick scripts. Scripts pick me.

If you don't love your fellow man, women, person, then you don't have anything. If you don't treat your neighbor as you would want to be treated that to me is the fundamental message.

Hate, hatred for yourself, for other people, will confine you, but love can set you free.

My mother never gave up one me. I messed up in school so much they were sending me home, but my mother sent me right back.

I've just directed a film called The Great Debaters, which is inspired by a true story about a young college debating team in the thirties and two of those people are still alive and we put them on tape on the film and I'm sure that will be added to the DVD, and to get the opportunity to do that is very cool.

My mother used to tell me man gives the award, God gives the reward. I don't need another plaque.

We do what we have to so we can do what we want to.

I don't concern myself with award. I'd been to the party enough times to know it really didn't matter.

When you don't understand something, you label it and condemn it" (94) - Danny Glover, "The Fundamental Things

[Russel Crowe] has been through a lot and had a lot of success. No one knew who he was when I worked with him 12 years ago. He's just come off a great film in Australia- Romper Stomper - and so it was good to see him again. Obviously, I'd seen him since.

I still have my unemployment books and I remember when I worked for the sanitation department and the post office.

I played Othello, but I didn't sit around thinking how Laurence Olivier did it when he played it. That wouldn't do me any good.

People tend to relax when they're off camera. That's when they should be working the hardest.

Hate put me in prison. Love's gonna bust me out.