Denzel Washington Quotes

If you take the time and put in the effort to write your own material and absolutely refuse to be denied the right to make your film it is difficult whatever colour you are.

For whatever reason, God has blessed me with the ability, put me in a position to make these leaps and bounds. I'm fulfilling my part of the bargain, which is to give back and be a positive influence on others.

What are you doing extra? That's what counts. That's when you're working hard - when you're going above and over what's expected of you" (102). - Tony Gonzalez, "The Giant Within

I've worked with children all my life.

I'm not afraid to upset people. But I am not as upset because I understand what I'm up against.

When I was a child I thought I saw an angel. It had wings and kinda looked like my sister. I opened the door so some light could come into the room, and it sort of faded away. My mother said it was probably my Guardian Angel.

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).

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

Do what you have to do, to do what you want to do.

I made a commitment to completely cut out drinking and anything that might hamper me from getting my mind and body together. And the floodgates of goodness have opened upon me - spiritually and financially.

At the end of the day, it's not about what you have or even what you've accomplished. It's about what you've done with those accomplishments. Its about who you've lifted up, who you've made better. It about what you've given back (23).

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

A man once told me that you step out of your door in the morning, and you are already in trouble. The only question is are you on top of that trouble or not?

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.

Revenge is a meal best served cold.

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

Any good piece of material like Shakespeare ought to be open to reinterpretation.

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

Dreams without goals, are just dreams and they ultimately fuel disappointment.

I'm a parent. I think we're responsible for the problems that young people have. I believe that. I don't blame them for any of it. I blame us for what we haven't done as mothers and fathers, not sticking together as a unit.

That's what I tell young actors. "You don't have to compromise. Go do some theater and wait for an appropriate role."

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,

As an actor, you're a color of paint on someone else's palette. But as a director, it's your canvas and you make the painting you want to make.

I get nervous when a picture goes beyond two hours.

As an actor in the theater you're taught that you never play a bad guy. You have to love who you are. You can't say, "Oh, I'm a bad guy." How do you play that?

If I am a cup maker, I'm interested in making the best cup I possibly can. My effort goes into that cup, not what people think about it.

The time to worrying about flying is when you're on the ground. When you're up in the air, it's too late. No point in worrying about it then.

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

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.

Years ago, even prior to 9/11, I did a movie called "The Siege." I did a lot of research with the FBI and the CIA. And I was amazed at that time (I guess we might all know it now) how little information they shared with each other. So after that, I'm not surprised by anything.

The poorest people are the sweetest people.

I've worked in a factory. I was a garbage man. I worked in a post office. It's not that long ago. I like to think that I'm just a regular guy.

If you want to be a warrior, you have to train.

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.

Goals on the road to achievement cannot be achieved without discipline and consistency.

I read a ton of scripts. I read a lot of scripts, and you read one, and first of all, you felt like you read it in 14 minutes, because you're turning the pages so fast you can't wait to see what's going to happen.

My father was a minister for 50 years (with) Pentecostal Church of God in Christ. We prayed about everything, every day, then he always said, "Amen. God is love." I thought God is love was one word. Like "Godislove." And it took me a long time to learn what that really meant.

Talent comes from God. If you have been given some, then value it, cultivate it, work and develop it.

Cats are too independent. They piss me off. They play when they want, and then they turn their back on you. Dogs, you throw the ball, and they bring it back, tongue hanging out, tail wagging. Cats are like "Not right now, too busy." Definitely a dog man. Except when it comes to cleaning up after them! Cats win that!

I just do what I feel and what I like. I don't necessarily censor or feel an obligation to have a particular moral standard - I'm willing to wallow in the mud, if necessary. It appears as if there seems to be a consistency in result, but maybe that has as much to do with the roles I choose as it does with how I play them. I do what pleases me.

My faith helps me understand that circumstances don't dictate my happiness, my inner peace.

Put God first in everything you do.

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.

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

I honestly believe, and I've said it many times, that the universal stems from the specific and I can't walk around with a performance and ask everyone how they feel about it, but if noble is an opinion that people have I'll accept that. I've been asked many times why I don't play bad guys, or heavies, and I would do it, absolutely, in a second, just haven't been offered any so ... if anybody has a script out there tonight I'm more than willing.

I wasn't allowed to go to movies when I was kid; my father was a minister. 101 Dalmatians and King of Kings, that was the extent of it.

The lessons I learned in Sunday School have kept me on track

A wise woman knows the importance of speaking life into her man. If you love him; believe in him, encourage him and be his peace.

We've all had some level of injustice, whether 20 years in prison, or 20 minutes sitting in your car waiting for a police officer to determine your future. Or even a few moments in an elevator with some woman clutching her purse thinking you're going to rob her ¾ regardless of celebrity, that has happened to me.

Just stick with your kids. There's no set of rules on how to be a parent. No handbook. Just hang around your kids and ask them a lot of questions. You have to stay involved in your children's lives and monitor everything they're doing whether they like it or not. You're not in the job of making them like it. You're there to protect them in a world that can be troubling.

It's not what you know, it's what you can prove.

I always say the time to worry about flying is when you're on the ground. If you don't trust the captain, don't go.

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

When I did A Soldier's Story, I was very young and green and thought I knew everything-now I know I know everything!

Be careful what you ask for because when you pray for rain, you have to deal with the mud as well.

Everybody has a job to do. There are people in Iraq on both sides of this war who do what they do for religious reasons, and they feel with God on their side. Some people are good at annihilating people. Maybe that's their gift.

He taught us that everyone has a good story and the more of others you understand, the better your grasp of human nature, a gift given great weight in my family" (73). - Bill Clinton, "Paying Attention

You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That's a part of it.

Just because you are doing a lot more doesn't mean you are getting a lot done. Don't confuse movement with progress!

Growing up I didn't watch movies.

Acting is just a way of making a living, the family is life.

We'll all retire from life at some point. The great thing about acting is you don't necessarily have to retire.

Some said America took a step forward electing a black president. In light of the unconstitutiona l expansion of powers, lack of transparency and fueling the fires of unrest that clearly hasn't been the case. Vote based on merits, not to fill a racial quota.

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.

I'm not in the loop; I don't know any actors, really, just the ones I work with.

I'm not a film buff. I don't watch a lot of movies.

I'm very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That's my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it's not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.

The chances you take, the people you meet, the people you love, the faith that you have. That's what's going to define you.

Do what you gotta do so you can do what you wanna do.

Acting is like music and you improvise. It's like jazz, there's no rhyme or reason to it. It's not a plan. You practice to music and you just play it.

I think that if there can be considered racism it's to do with the lack of opportunities for writers and producers and the people behind the camera.

When people say "What do you want people to get from this movie?" I say, "Well, it depends on what they bring to it." I don't try to decide what people should get from it or why. I don't do a part for those kinds of reasons.

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.

The secret to a happy marriage? Do whatever your wife tells you. 'Yes, dear.' And breathe.

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

I had a lot of success from the start. I never really was tested for long periods of time. I got my first professional job while I was a senior in college. I signed with the William Morris Agency before I graduated.

Do what you got to do now, so you can do what you want to do later

Meryl and Katharine Hepburn are probably the two greatest actresses of this and the last century.

Put God first in everything you do ... Everything that I have is by the grace of God, understand that. It's a gift ... I didn't always stick with Him, but He stuck with me.

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

It is very important to transcend the places that hold us.

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.

You will never see a U-Haul behind a hearse,

I've always seen it to be a privilege to make movies. It's a really expensive, creative medium.

My ultimate life dream project is my kids. My family.

When you make a movie it's always interesting, because you end up in places you never would as a normal visitor or tourist.

I say luck is when an opportunity comes along and you're prepared for it.

Michelle Pfeiffer hasn't been finding a lot of work recently because she doesn't like what a woman her age is offered. That's a real double standard. You get Sean Connery, who gets older and older, still playing opposite young ladies, but it doesn't work the other way around.

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

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.here's been a tremendous amount of change.

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.

If you don't fail, you're not even trying.

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

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

I have a new respect for filmmakers, that's for sure, 'cause it's not easy. If I'm allowed to, I'll be directing for the rest of my life. I love the process.

The greatest lesson I've learned in life is "Who knows what's good or bad?" Things come along that you really want, and they turn out to be the worst thing in the world. And some of the worst tragedies that you can conceive turn out to be the best things, the exact medicine you need in that moment.

There are films that I don't like, and then someone will come up to me and say it's their favorite movie. The movies belong to the people. You make them and you put them out. For me, I love the process of making films. For me, my favorite film is always my next one.

So you never know who you are going to touch. You never know how or when you'll have an impact, or how important your example can be to someone else" (20) - Denzel Washington, "So that We Might Follow

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

There is nothing good or bad, except by comparison" (209) - "Effort is Everything" by Bud Selig