Denzel Washington Quotes

There's always got to be room for what you might call benign corruption. Nobody blames a man who steals food to feed his starving children, but on the other hand, somebody who picks up a badge and takes an oath to serve and protect; we do expect a certain level of essential honesty.

True desire in the heart for anything good is God's proof to you sent beforehand to indicate that it's yours already.

There's racism everywhere.

You'll see some great performances [in Fences]. And I'm not just saying that because I directed it either! You'll see!

The only reason I'm acting in films I direct is to get the money to make them, quite frankly, it's not what I'm interested in doing.

You don't pick black actors or black directors because they are black. You pick them because they are good. If you lend somebody 50 million dollars you want you're money back. You don't care if they are oppressed. You just want you're money back.

After directing the first film it feels kind of tricky being back to being in front of the camera, because I've always got one eye over there, kind of thinking of what they are doing, and how the shot is being composed. I think it takes a couple of films to just get back to just being an actor.

Come on, I know bad acting when I hear it.

You start to find a rhythm and usually if it makes me laugh or comment in the editing room then I knew that's what's going to happen in the audience. That first reaction is usually the right reaction.

In Los Angeles, everyone is a star.

Don't be afraid to fail big, to dream big.

We know what hair smells like when a hot comb hits it. That's a cultural thing. We know what that smells like on Sunday mornings, usually church-related or something. In my house, it was getting ready for church and your sister was getting her hair fried.

If you don't trust the pilot, don't go.

Don't aspire to make a living, aspire to make a difference.

By the way, sitting with other mommies is probably the most frightening experience in the entire world. They're serious into mommy-shaming.

To protect the sheep, you gotta catch the wolf. And it takes a wolf to catch a wolf, you understand?

Money doesn't buy happiness. Some people say it's a heck of a down payment, though.

It's tricky with monologues, and I never like to use that word. Like I told the actors, you are talking to somebody; there is no such thing as a monologue.

We live in a time when people give up too easy.

We've all received our share of good fortune, so that's my definition of much. A single blessing is all the bounty in the world, and if you've been blessed at all you're meant to pass some of that on. You're meant to set a positive example. That's our responsibility

I talked to my mother about it a lot. I asked her what it was like to grow up in New York and Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s, and I asked her about a woman leaving her husband. I asked her about how she would feel about that woman, and my mother grew up in the Church Of God In Christ, and she told me that the woman might be isolated because the other women thought she might go and come after their husbands. That's how they thought then.

So you never know who you touch. You never know how or when you'll have an impact, or how important your example can be to someone else" (20).

One good thing about acting in film is that it's good therapy.

A part of me still says, 'Maybe, Denzel, you're supposed to preach. Maybe you're still compromising.' I've had an opportunity to play great men and, through their words, to preach. I take what talent I've been given seriously, and I want to use it for good.

I walk by faith, not by sight.

Revenge is a meal best served cold.