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?
Goals on the road to achievement cannot be achieved without discipline and consistency.
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.
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: I like the collaboration, I like seeing people do well, so I really plan to direct the rest of my days.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I’m a logic monster, if things don’t make sense I gotta make sense of them.
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.
Acting, it’s not my life, my children and my family, that’s life. I’ll get up every morning, God willing, for that.
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.
We’ll all retire from life at some point. The great thing about acting is you don’t necessarily have to retire.
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.
There’s things that I can do as an actor that I couldn’t do in any other form of life and I’ve got a strange personality. But film requires strange people, so I’ve got a nice comfy home.
A sociopath will do anything to win. Anything.
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.
I’ve always seen it to be a privilege to make movies. It’s a really expensive, creative medium.