Top 40 Antoine Fuqua Quotes

What I learned is, don’t forget who you are, because that’s what’s going to make you a filmmaker.

I just think you can’t shut your life off to just, you know, one thing. You gotta be open-minded. Explore things. Feed your artist.

I only pay to take my son to the movies, because most of the time I only watch European movies, independent movies, or screen them privately. But I like to go to movies with my son because it’s still fun; it reminds me of why I make movies.

I think that the dialogue between police officers and the black community has to get better, but not better in a way where, ‘Oh, let’s talk about it when something horrible happens.’ The dialogue has to be going on consistently, every day.

Cinema Paradiso, because it reminds me of why I make movies, the magic of movies, the romance of movies.

In our culture, I think that there is no markers anymore. Young men don’t really have something that says you’re a grown up now, until you have a baby.

The simple answer is I’d just be a guy trying to feed my family, like everybody else. The complicated answer is, I think I’d be in some sort of military or government world of some sort.

The world we live in is like a Benetton ad. It’s changed, and we have to appeal to a broader audience. You want younger kids of every race to be able to see themselves in the movie.

I became a director just for the love of movies, because of the power of cinema.

It’s a dumb question, because I don’t look at things as a black director, just as a director, so ask me as a director first and we can segue into the colour thing later.

Kurosawa is the sensei, the Shakespeare, of filmmaking.

You don’t just have to see superhero movies. Ultimately, those movies are westerns – superheroes are good guys fighting bad guys in a landscape. In westerns, that divide couldn’t be any more clear, but the only superpower you have is that you’re a quicker shot than the other guy.

It’s not worth it, it’s not about money, especially when you’re dealing with a culture. It should be about elevating the idea of what we are and who we are as people in the cinema, and that kind of stuff keeps dragging us back down.

When you’re a director, and you look at Scorsese’s work, he’s always challenging us to push the envelope and break the rules. Someone like that is necessary and a godsend.

I box every day. I have a gym built wherever I go, so I still got my gym. Every day, I try to get in there and work out the mitts.

I grew up on the East Coast, and we always used to say, ‘Go get your hustle on,’ whether it was playing sports or making money. You do what you have to do to do what you want to do.

Westerns are simple stories where there’s good and there’s evil and where people had a sense of space and freedom. Growing up in the city, as a kid, you’ve never really seen that before. It’s a beautiful dream to go from concrete to big skies, dirt and horses.

Every time I look through the lens with Denzel, I’m like a 12-year-old kid. It’s hard for me to look at the monitor because the fun is in watching him.

At one point, there wasn’t a black quarterback in the NFL. When you start winning, then you start seeing more. Jumping up and down and screaming and calling people names is not going to change anything.

When you’re sitting ringside, there’s a primal thing there that hooks into violence and excitement. It’s just two guys going at it in the ring – there’s no team, no one to pass the ball to – and there’s a certain excitement to that.

So it’s hard to be an artist and be true to the reality of the world you want to create and also make it entertaining and successful financially.

Each time you see a Western movie, it’s a good reflection of where things are in the world at that time. It’s probably one of the purest forms of cinema that really tells you where the world is.

Denzel’s all about the work. He’s all about the acting. He’s an actor. He’ll tell you himself, ‘I’m not a movie star, celebrity, something else. I’m an actor.’ He steps on a set, that’s what he is, and that’s what he gives you. He gives his heart.

I don’t understand why we give up genres, and the Western is a great genre. It’s a part of the rich history of cinema and who we are as we’ve evolved as people, as a community.

What’s it like finding out Denzel Washington wants you to direct his next movie? It’s like getting a phone call from Muhammad Ali or Michael Jordan saying they want you to coach them.

I believe in God, absolutely.

The story is also about the battle between Arthur and the Saxons. The Saxons were destroying everything they came across and Arthur was left when Rome was falling because this movie takes place in 400 A.D.

You have to feed your soul and spirit, but you also have to be a professional and remember the business that you’re in. Everything is not your passion project.

I like the platform to show your art and everything that goes along with that. To show your voice and hopefully find films that are more politically driven, films that maybe inspire.

I started studying mythology, just on my own. Joseph Campbell, mysticism.

Bruce Willis. Pain in my ass, no problem about that. We just didn’t get along. We got along off camera, but shooting we just didn’t get along.

Making a movie to entertain people, that’s just as important as telling people about our stories.

When I was younger, growing up in Pittsburgh, they had a ‘Golden Gloves’ program through the Boys and Girls Club. In Pittsburgh, New York, Philly, Washington, those areas, I would go and spar at competitions.

I like the opportunity to make films.

I used to get off the bus, and there’d be a crowd around, you know, and I was thinking, ‘God, I hope this is not for me.’ And it normally was, and it was because someone said something to my sister, and the first she says is, ‘Well, I’ll get my brother.’

‘Cause movies are human drama, that’s it.

I like making movies.

The challenge for a director – and I think a lot of directors feel the same way – is that today we have to put on a producer’s hat, too. Meaning, you have to sometimes think of it being ‘business show,’ not just ‘show business.’

I grew up an athlete, growing up in Pittsburgh. I played basketball. I played football. I played a little bit of baseball in my earlier years.

My grandmother was a huge western fan. She’d have me watch with her. ‘Shane,’ ‘Bonanza,’ ‘Duel in the Sun,’ I saw them all with her. I used to watch them until the TV turned to snow.