Quotes from Denzel Washington

My ultimate life dream project is my kids. My family.

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.

Nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks. Fall forward. Every failed experiment is one step closer to success.

The secret to a happy marriage? Do whatever your wife tells you. 'Yes, dear.' And breathe.

Success? I don't know what that word means. I'm happy. But success, that goes back to what in somebody's eyes success means. For me, success is inner peace. That's a good day for me.

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

For me, success is inner peace. That's a good day for me.

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

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.

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

In Los Angeles, everyone is a star.

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

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 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.

When I was a child I thought I saw an angel. It had wings and kinda looked like my sister. I opened the door so some light could come into the room, and it sort of faded away. My mother said it was probably my Guardian Angel.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

When my oldest boy was about 14, I started to talk to him about some of the mistakes I made in life, just to put a few dents in that shiny armor.

We'll all retire from life at some point. The great thing about acting is you don't necessarily have to retire.

I've worked with children all my life.

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.