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

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

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.
Denzel Washington

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

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

Growing up I didn't watch movies.
Denzel Washington

I and haven't been unemployed for 20 years. I'm an exception to the rule.
Denzel Washington

I don't concern myself with award. I'd been to the party enough times to know it really didn't matter.
Denzel Washington

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.
Denzel Washington

I made a commitment to completely cut out drinking and anything that might hamper me from getting my mind and body together. And the floodgates of goodness have opened upon me - spiritually and financially.
Denzel Washington


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

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

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

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

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.
Denzel Washington

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

I'm not in the loop; I don't know any actors, really, just the ones I work with.
Denzel Washington

I've been fortunate. I don't pick scripts. Scripts pick me.
Denzel Washington

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