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.

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

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.

My mother used to tell me man gives the award, God gives the reward. I don't need another plaque.

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.

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.

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

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

In Los Angeles, everyone is a star.

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!

Where I think the most work needs to be done is behind the camera, not in front of it.

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.

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 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.

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

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

The poorest people are the sweetest people.

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.

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

The time to worrying about flying is when you're on the ground. When you're up in the air, it's too late. No point in worrying about it then.

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

Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.

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

When I did A Soldier's Story, I was very young and green and thought I knew everything-now I know I know everything!

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.

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.

When people protest and are upset with a movie, it becomes a big hit. They hated Passion of The Christ, it worked out pretty well for the box office. So let's get that going.

I've worked with children all my life.

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.

If you don't trust the pilot, don't go.

Growing up I didn't watch movies.

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.

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

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

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.

My mother never gave up one me. I messed up in school so much they were sending me home, but my mother sent me right back.

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

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

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

In any profession it gets to be a grind.

One good thing about acting in film is that it's good therapy.

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

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

I think a role model is a mentor - someone you see on a daily basis, and you learn from them.

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.

Man gives you the award but God gives you the reward.

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

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