Quotes By Denzel Washington

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

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!

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

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

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.

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

Growing up I didn't watch movies.

I think a role model is a mentor - someone you see on a daily basis, and you learn from them.

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

In any profession it gets to be a grind.

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.

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

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.

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.

In Los Angeles, everyone is a star.

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

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.

You have to grab moments when they happen. I like to improvise and ad lib.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

The poorest people are the sweetest people.