Denzel Washington

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

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

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.

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

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!

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 don't know when you're being watched. That's one of the weird things about celebrity. It's my least favorite part of acting, celebrity.

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

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

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.

I like talking. I like acting.

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.

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

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.

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

I've worked with children all my life.

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

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.

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.

My faith helps me understand that circumstances don't dictate my happiness, my inner peace.