Denzel Washington movie quotes

“It's not what you know; it's what you can prove.”
Denzel Washington - Alonzo

“It was summer 1948, and I needed money. After goin' door-to-door all day long, I was back again at Joppy's bar trying to figure out where I was gonna go looking for work the next day.”
Denzel Washington - Easy Rawlins

“- Hunter: Captain Ramsey, under operating procedures governing the release of nuclear weapons, we cannot launch our missiles unless both you and I agree.
- Ramsey: COB, what're you waiting for?
- Hunter: This is not a formality, sir! This is expressly why your command must be repeated. It requires my assent, I do not give it and furthermore, you...” (continue)(continue reading)
Denzel Washington - Hunter
Gene Hackman - Ramsey

“You don't know any stories? Okay, I'll tell you a story. This is a newspaper. It's 90 per cent bullshit, but it's entertaining. That's why I read it? Because it entertains me. You won't let me read it, so you entertain me with your bullshit. Tell me a story, right now.”
Denzel Washington - Alonzo

“- Anthony 'Hub' Hubbard: What did State Department tell you to do?
- Agent Frank Haddad: Told me to call INS.
- Anthony 'Hub' Hubbard: All right, what did INS say?
- Agent Frank Haddad: Told me to call State.”
Denzel Washington - Anthony Hubbard
Tony Shalhoub - Frank Haddad

“Destiny is what we make it.”
Denzel Washington - Lincoln Rhyme

“It's a miracle a child survives here at all. People are so desperate for anything they'll beat a kid bloody if they thought he had five Rand. But if you do run fast enough, if you do survive, you grew up in these streets, these houses. Your parents try, but in the end, you only get the education the white man will give you.”

Denzel Washington - Steve Biko

“- General William Devereaux: Do you think that I would hesitate to kill you, or every Federal Agent in this room, if I thought it was in the best interest of my country?
- Anthony 'Hub' Hubbard: No, no, no, you wouldn't hesitate, I know that. But they might. Give the order. Make murderers out of these young kids, give the order.”

Bruce Willis - General William Devereaux
Denzel Washington - Anthony Hubbard

“- Pvt. Trip: Nigger, you better get your hands off me!
- Sgt. Maj. John Rawlins: Ain't no niggers around here! Understand?
- Pvt. Trip: Oh, I see, so the white man give you a couple a stripes, and suddenly you start hollerin' and orderin' everybody around, like you the massa himself! Nigger, you ain't nothin' but the white man's dog!”
Denzel Washington - Pvt. Trip
Morgan Freeman - Sgt. Maj. John Rawlins

“This is the essence of discrimination: formulating opinions about others not based on their individual merits, but rather on their membership in a group with assumed characteristics.”
Denzel Washington - Joe Miller

“- General William Devereaux: Elise Kraft wouldn't know the difference between a sheik and a prophylactic of the same name.
- Anthony 'Hub' Hubbard: Thanks for the heads-up.”
Bruce Willis - General William Devereaux
Denzel Washington - Anthony Hubbard

“- Lincoln Rhyme: Pull up a chair. I want you to tell me everything you know about the crime scene.
- Amelia Donaghy: Basically, you saw my report.
- Lincoln Rhyme: I read your report. I wanna know what you felt. What you feel... in the deepest recesses of your senses.”
Denzel Washington - Lincoln Rhyme
Angelina Jolie - Amelia Donaghy

“- Gretta Milano: I believe more is hidden than is seen.
- John Hobbes: I believe what I see, but I'm still trying to get my mind around what I just saw.”
Embeth Davidtz - Gretta Milano
Denzel Washington - John Hobbes

“- Doug Carlin: What if you had to tell someone the most important thing in the world, but you knew they'd never believe you?
- Claire Kuchever: I'd try.”
Denzel Washington - Doug Carlin
Paula Patton - Claire Kuchever

“- Judge Garrett: In this courtroom, Mr.Miller, justice is blind to matters of race, creed, color, religion, and sexual orientation.
- Joe Miller: With all due respect, your honor, we don't live in this courtroom, do we?”
Charles Napier - Judge Garnett
Denzel Washington - Joe Miller

“- Doug Carlin: Is she alive or is she dead?
- Denny: Alright: life, like time and space, is not merely a local phenomenon.”
Denzel Washington - Doug Carlin
Adam Goldberg - Denny

“Everybody was peeing on my head and telling me it was raining. Guess they figured I was some new kind of fool, and maybe I was. 'Cause I was ready to start fighting back. And I believed somehow that I could live through this bad dream I was having.”
Denzel Washington - Easy Rawlins

“The one thing I could do, and the only thing was box. I had tasted my own blood and I loved it.”
Denzel Washington - Rubin Carter

“- Elise Kraft: You might consider leaving him alone.
- Anthony 'Hub' Hubbard: Why would I consider doing that?
- Elise Kraft: Play him like a cop and haul him in now and get your arrest, or tag him and let him lead you to the really big fish.”

Annette Bening - Elise Kraft
Denzel Washington - Anthony Hubbard

“I pray you understand why I pushed you so hard! It was only to get you to that next level.”

Denzel Washington - Jake Shuttlesworth

“I may have been born yesterday, but I stayed up all night.”
Denzel Washington - Bleek Gilliam

- Amelia Donaghy: Thelma told me about your plans for your "final transition".
- Lincoln Rhyme: Cop to cop, that subject's not open to discussion. Why?... Would you miss me?
- Amelia Donaghy: Well, destiny's what we make it, right?
- Lincoln Rhyme: Touche.
- Amelia Donaghy: Now, you seem to have your reasons for checking out.

Angelina Jolie - Amelia Donaghy
Denzel Washington - Lincoln Rhyme

“You have the right not to be tortured, not to be murdered, rights that you took away from Tariq Husseini. You have those rights because of the men who came before you who wore that uniform. Because of the men and women who are standing here right now waiting for you to give them the order to fire.”

Denzel Washington - Anthony Hubbard

“- Andrew Beckett: What do you call a thousand lawyers chained together at the bottom of the ocean?
- Joe Miller: [amused,sitting next to him on the hospital bed] I don't know.
- Andrew Beckett: A good start.”

Tom Hanks - Andrew Beckett
Denzel Washington - Joe Miller

“I began to think this idea of inferiority was an even bigger problem for us than what the Afrikaans were doing to us. At first a black man had to believe he had as much capacity to be a doctor, a leader, as a white man.”
Denzel Washington - Steve Biko