Top 100 Denzel Washington Quotes
#1. You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That's a part of it.
Denzel Washington
#2. 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.
Denzel Washington
#3. My role 14 years ago in Richard III - that was the first time I played a bad guy and learned a lot about it - they have all the fun!
Denzel Washington
#4. 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
Denzel Washington
#5. I'd be more frightened by not using whatever abilities I'd been given. I'd be more frightened by procrastination and laziness.
Denzel Washington
#7. My mother used to tell me: "You gotta smile more. Because if you don't smile, the way you look at people, they'll think you're mad at them."
Denzel Washington
#8. I'm not interested in being a celebrity; I'm interested in being a better actor and a better director.
Denzel Washington
#10. If you have an enemy, then learn and know your enemy, don't just be mad at him or her
Denzel Washington
#13. Goals on the road to achievement cannot be achieved without discipline and consistency.
Denzel Washington
#15. Acting, it's not my life, my children and my family, that's life. I'll get up every morning, God willing, for that.
Denzel Washington
#16. 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.
Denzel Washington
#18. You have to do what you gotta do in this life in order to do what you wanna do ...
Denzel Washington
#19. Denzel Washington: I like the collaboration, I like seeing people do well, so I really plan to direct the rest of my days.
Denzel Washington
#20. 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.
Denzel Washington
#21. I and haven't been unemployed for 20 years. I'm an exception to the rule.
Denzel Washington
#23. I've always seen it to be a privilege to make movies. It's a really expensive, creative medium.
Denzel Washington
#24. 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).
Denzel Washington
#26. I work hard for the audience. It's entertainment. I don't need validation.
Denzel Washington
#27. Sometimes when you're the good guy, you're sort of trapped. "Oh, he can't say that." And even when you're playing a real person like a Steven Biko, you're sort of stuck within those confines. So yeah, bad guys do have more fun.
Denzel Washington
#28. 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
Denzel Washington
#29. I love research and being educated. It's a great job being able to step into all kinds of professions and into other people's shoes.
Denzel Washington
#30. 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.
Denzel Washington
#32. 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.
Denzel Washington
#33. 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.
Denzel Washington
#34. What's a celebrity anyway? Paris Hilton's a celebrity. I'm just a working actor.
Denzel Washington
#35. When you trust the director you want to trust his or her choices. I don't want to say, 'No, I don't like this girl or that guy, when the director really loves them. No, you want to go with what the director likes.
Denzel Washington
#36. 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.
Denzel Washington
#37. I found that nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks.
Denzel Washington
#38. I'm from around Tennessee. I ran away when I was 12 years old and I ain't never looked back.
Denzel Washington
#39. 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.
Denzel Washington
#40. It's simple: You get a part. You play a part. You play it well. You do your work and you go home. And what is wonderful about movies is that once they're done, they belong to the people. Once you make it, it's what they see. That's where my head is at.
Denzel Washington
#41. Every punch that's thrown is mine. Every punch that's caught, I catch ...
Denzel Washington
#42. So the desire you have, that itch that you have to be whatever it is you want to be ... that itch, that desire for good is God's proof to you sent already to indicate that it's yours. You already have it. Claim it.
Denzel Washington
#43. I always think it's not what we know that's terrifying; it's what we don't know. That's sort of pervasive with everything in life.
Denzel Washington
#44. You have to grab moments when they happen. I like to improvise and ad lib.
Denzel Washington
#45. I don't look back, no. Maybe when I'm older; people say, 'What's your favorite film?' I say, 'My next one.' I'm not interested in sitting around; I just don't, never have.
Denzel Washington
#46. 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.
Denzel Washington
#48. 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.
Denzel Washington
#49. 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.
Denzel Washington
#50. I think we're fascinated by gangsters and that whole lifestyle and crossing the line. We get sort of stuck in our normal lives, if you will, and you want to be bigger than life and I think people somehow live through these sorts of characters.
Denzel Washington
#51. One good thing about acting in film is that it's good therapy.
Denzel Washington
#52. In my humble opinion, in the nuclear world, the true enemy is war itself.
Denzel Washington
#53. I'm not afraid to upset people. But I am not as upset because I understand what I'm up against.
Denzel Washington
#54. 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.
Denzel Washington
#55. 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.
Denzel Washington
#57. 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.
Denzel Washington
#60. 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.
Denzel Washington
#61. When you make a movie it's always interesting, because you end up in places you never would as a normal visitor or tourist.
Denzel Washington
#62. 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.
Denzel Washington
#65. I still have my unemployment books and I remember when I worked for the sanitation department and the post office.
Denzel Washington
#67. The secret to a happy marriage? Do whatever your wife tells you. 'Yes, dear.' And breathe.
Denzel Washington
#68. I just try to be honest and true to the character and play the part.
Denzel Washington
#69. To protect the sheep, you gotta catch the wolf. And it takes a wolf to catch a wolf, you understand?
Denzel Washington
#70. My faith helps me understand that circumstances don't dictate my happiness, my inner peace.
Denzel Washington
#71. I got on my knees and sort of communicated with the spirits. When I came out, I was in charge. I couldn't have acted that, I couldn't have written that.
Denzel Washington
#73. There's nothing good or bad, except by comparison" (210) - Bud Selig "Effort is Everything
Denzel Washington
#74. 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?
Denzel Washington
#75. 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.
Denzel Washington
#76. 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.
Denzel Washington
#77. I'm not in the loop; I don't know any actors, really, just the ones I work with.
Denzel Washington
#78. The last few years I've been saying I was ready to quit. It wasn't that interesting to me. Now that I'm directing, it's all new again.
Denzel Washington
#79. 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.
Denzel Washington
#81. Any good piece of material like Shakespeare ought to be open to reinterpretation.
Denzel Washington
#85. Hate, hatred for yourself, for other people, will confine you, but love can set you free.
Denzel Washington
#86. Religion to me is when man gets ahold of spirituality: "My god is right, yours is wrong." Religion to me is the human condition. "If you're a Muslim, you can't be a Christian." That to me is religion.
Denzel Washington
#88. 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.
Denzel Washington
#89. 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.
Denzel Washington
#90. That's what I tell young actors. "You don't have to compromise. Go do some theater and wait for an appropriate role."
Denzel Washington
#91. I don't concern myself with award. I'd been to the party enough times to know it really didn't matter.
Denzel Washington
#92. 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
Denzel Washington
#94. I'm a logic monster, if things don't make sense I gotta make sense of them.
Denzel Washington
#95. 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?
Denzel Washington
#96. 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.
Denzel Washington
#97. When you don't understand something, you label it and condemn it" (94) - Danny Glover, "The Fundamental Things
Denzel Washington
#99. Writing is a weapon and it's more powerful than a fist could ever be.
Denzel Washington
#100. 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.
Denzel Washington
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