Top 30 Denzel Washington Quotes

I never really had the classic struggle. I had faith.

Man gives you the award but God gives you the reward.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Black or white good parts are hard to come by. A good actor with a good opportunity has a shot; without the opportunity it doesn’t matter how good you are.

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.

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.

In any profession it gets to be a grind.

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

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.

I’d be more frightened by not using whatever abilities I’d been given. I’d be more frightened by procrastination and laziness.

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

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.

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

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.

I’ve worked with children all my life.

I like talking. I like acting.

If you have an enemy, then learn and know your enemy, don’t just be mad at him or her.

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’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.

When people protest and are upset with a movie, it becomes a big hit. They hated Passion of The Christ, it worked out pretty well for the box office. So let’s get that going.

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

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.