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[Black people] come into the world exactly like you. It's just that there are circumstances in the culture that are dictated and put on our lives that we have to fight against.

Denzel Washington

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Denzel Washington
Age: 69
Born: 1954
Born: December 28
Actor
Basketball Player
Film Actor
Film Director
Film Producer
Politician
Screenwriter
Spokesperson
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Mount Vernon
New York
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr.
People
Fight
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Black
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Dictated
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More quotes by Denzel Washington

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Religion to me is when man gets ahold of spirituality: My god is right, yours is wrong. Religion to me is the human condition. If you're a Muslim, you can't be a Christian. That to me is religion.
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I'm very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That's my cultural historical background, my genetic make-up, but it's not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.
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The Bible says faith without works is nothing so destiny is great, fate is great, faith is great - but you still have to work at it. I don't just sit at home and wait for it all to unfold.
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I'm not a film buff. I don't watch a lot of movies.
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[Russel Crowe] has been through a lot and had a lot of success. No one knew who he was when I worked with him 12 years ago. He's just come off a great film in Australia- Romper Stomper - and so it was good to see him again. Obviously, I'd seen him since.
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Any good piece of material like Shakespeare ought to be open to reinterpretation.
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You never know how you're going to affect people.
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Acting is like music and you improvise. It's like jazz, there's no rhyme or reason to it. It's not a plan. You practice to music and you just play it.
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Michelle Pfeiffer hasn't been finding a lot of work recently because she doesn't like what a woman her age is offered. That's a real double standard. You get Sean Connery, who gets older and older, still playing opposite young ladies, but it doesn't work the other way around.
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A part of me still says, 'Maybe, Denzel, you're supposed to preach. Maybe you're still compromising.' I've had an opportunity to play great men and, through their words, to preach. I take what talent I've been given seriously, and I want to use it for good.
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The secret to a happy marriage? Do whatever your wife tells you. 'Yes, dear.' And breathe.
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If you have an enemy, then learn and know your enemy, don't just be mad at him or her.
Denzel Washington
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People have said to me for a long time, Man you're funny. I say, Well, I'm quick, but being funny on purpose, take after take - that's why I said for me it was new territory, and so by improvising something might come out that might be good. And it's film, so they can cut it if it isn't.
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In fact, someone was telling me that Gladiator was the one film where Ridley Scott didn't take a producer's credit. And it won. But this guy changed the industry twice with Aliens which was a whole new way of looking at things and Blade Runner that was also a whole new way of looking at things.
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There's a book called The Sociopath Next Door. I thought most sociopaths were violent. In fact, they aren't. But almost all sociopaths want to win, no matter what.
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Taking the money from drug operations and all that sort of stuff is something that goes past what most of us in society would expect a policeman should do. That temptation hits the police force at the same time as the temptation to take those drugs that are readily available hits the people on the streets.
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You have to grab moments when they happen. I like to improvise and ad lib.
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You'll see some great performances [in Fences]. And I'm not just saying that because I directed it either! You'll see!
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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.
Denzel Washington
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I'm a positive person, so I don't get bogged down with it. If you're expecting that, if you wall in that, if you practice that, then you'll attract what you fear.
Denzel Washington