Top 63 Quotes & Sayings by Bill Duke

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American actor Bill Duke.

Last updated on December 25, 2024.

William Henry Duke Jr. is an American actor and film director. Known for his physically imposing frame, Duke works primarily in the action and crime drama genres often as a character related to law enforcement. Frequently a character actor, he has starred opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando and Predator, and has appeared in films like American Gigolo, No Man's Land, Bird on a Wire, Menace II Society, Exit Wounds, Payback, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Mandy. In television, he is best known as Agent Percy Odell in Black Lightning.

American - Actor | Born: February 26, 1943

Source: Wikipedia

I love great writing.

Bill Duke

My father worked three jobs, my mother worked two, seven days a week sometimes. And they wouldn't take welfare or social assistance, they were too proud.

Bill Duke

The thing about Robin Givens as an actress is that she doesn't back away from anything.

Bill Duke

Acting takes courage.

Bill Duke

Do I see people working harder than me? I can't imagine that but if I do it inspires me to work harder.

Bill Duke

By healing the internal issues that we can heal as a people, our children don't have to suffer the same agony and pain that we put each other through.

Bill Duke

You determine your reality.

Bill Duke

How can you compare 'Hollywood Shuffle,' financed through the director's credit cards, and 'Apocalypse Now?' You have to take into consideration the conditions under which it was made.

Bill Duke

Well, in the '80s and '70s, with the exception of Sidney Poitier and Brock Peters, maybe Ivan Dixon, if you were as big and black as I am, you were a bad guy. Simple. Because in real life, I scare people.

Bill Duke

I don't think God makes mistakes and I think that women have to not rely on men to define their worth.

Bill Duke

I saw the things that my sister went through - she's dark skinned - with boys not considering her attractive in her youth and the pain that it caused her.

Bill Duke

No individual should rely on any other human being or system to define their worth as a human being. You have to begin to find that within yourself.

Bill Duke

Pain is pain.

Bill Duke

I don't say, 'Francis Ford Coppola, what a wonderful Italian-American director.' I judge him based on his film, his craft, his art. That's the way I feel I should be dealt with in this industry.

Bill Duke

I didn't come up in a culture or society that looked on me as a movie star. I was the bad guy. I was fortunate enough to be cast in some roles that weren't bad, were positive.

Bill Duke

Colorism is unfortunately still an issue today.

Bill Duke

I'm hoping to see some minorities in executive offices in positions of power, people who see the merit of projects with minority themes. That may or may not happen.

Bill Duke

We need people with foresight who are willing to make films with smaller budgets and accept smaller profits.

Bill Duke

My favorite filmmaker is Frank Capra. He talked about the redemption of the human spirit - not the superhero, but the common man.

Bill Duke

Our internal racism is still alive. We are still putting each other down and making jokes about each other because of the color of our skin. With women particularly, it's difficult because the beauty business says, 'If you don't look a certain way, God made a mistake.'

Bill Duke

It's great working with great writers and directors because you're getting paid for something you love and want to do.

Bill Duke

I'm not interested in making 'black' movies. I'm interested in making movies that reflect reality as I perceive it.

Bill Duke

The fact of the matter is that when you're in pain emotionally about your life, the color of your skin does not matter.

Bill Duke

I was the first black director on 'Dallas.' I drove my car into the studio lot and the guard asked me who I was delivering to.

Bill Duke

I enjoyed 'Predator' a lot, and also 'Get Rich and Die Tryin'.' I really enjoyed that role and playing the O.G.

Bill Duke

Pain has no color.

Bill Duke

It's very important that we give a voice to the voiceless in terms of media; because media is a global phenom and it portrays you dependent upon what controls you have and the writers are doing great work.

Bill Duke

Dark skin is considered less than light skin in the in the minds of many in our community and in the media.

Bill Duke

The largest country with the largest consumption of skin bleach in the world is India. Indian men are bleaching their skin because, in terms of marriage, if your skin is dark, it's assumed you work in a field. If your skin is lighter, it's assumed you work in an office because you're not getting enough sun. Indian men are bleaching their skin.

Bill Duke

I meditate twice a day, T.M., and do yoga and tai chi.

Bill Duke

I think the media and the Internet and all that stuff, has created this perception of black women as these mammy types, kind of angry, you know, full of pent up emotions and resentments. And that these women are people to feared rather than loved.

Bill Duke

I've been very selfish and the women in my life have hated that because of my work ethic. I try not to bring my work home but the next day I want to go prepared. So okay let's have a few moments of camaraderie whatever... okay great! I go work on the script.

Bill Duke

There is no reason why excellent pictures can't be made for $4-5 million.

Bill Duke

My agent makes 10% of what you make. When your agent tells you to take a vacation, you know you're exhausted.

Bill Duke

The Democrats throw money at the problems, and the Republicans tend to ignore them. The Natural Law Party goes beyond those approaches. It's about true change.

Bill Duke

My parents taught me that it is my responsibility to make sacrifices for those after me.

Bill Duke

On the way from church one day when my sister and I were 7 or 8, I was beaten by some white bikers.

Bill Duke

I don't have all the answers. I'm just supposed to present what I think is an issue and have dialogue start.

Bill Duke

What I really plan to do is take the best scripts I get and consider them seriously. I can actually work as an actor and prepare a film as a director.

Bill Duke

I had studied at the NYU School of the Arts under Lloyd Richards, who also worked with the Negro Ensemble Company.

Bill Duke

My parents never let the color of our skin be an excuse for why we did not succeed.

Bill Duke

I'm a very private person, not much of a party person. That's how I keep my sanity.

Bill Duke

Some people you can forgive and forget. Some people you cannot forgive or forget. There are other people you can forgive and not forget. So there's people you can forgive and forget. Forgive and not forget. It depends on what they've done.

Bill Duke

I come up in a segregated 1943 atmosphere of segregation.

Bill Duke

Dreams that are planned are called frustration.

Bill Duke

Television is an excellent training ground for a director. If you work consistently in television, as I did, you have to come in on time and on budget. What you are allowed in feature films are, fortunately, more time and a larger budget.

Bill Duke

I think that some actors who make it in Hollywood are very talented. There are some of my heroes, the Meryl Streeps of the world, a lot of people that I love their work but I think a lot of it is luck, looks, strategic alliances and relationships, your agent and a lot of business components.

Bill Duke

The only chance for a guy like me is to make a decent picture for a reasonable budget. If it brings in a profit for investors, maybe I'll have the opportunity to make something else.

Bill Duke

I don't want to exclusively direct white films, or black films. I want to have a choice.

Bill Duke

It's assumed that light-skinned women have no problems or issues, but they are judged before you know who they are.

Bill Duke

Television is a producers' medium. There is a formula with a certain number of closeups for each show.

Bill Duke

Part of the training you get in theater is that you're never going to give up.

Bill Duke

Meryl Streep doesn't care how she looks. She just surrenders to the truth of the character. Not everybody has the ability to do that. They look good and they can pretend to be that person, it's not the same as being that person. And there are not many actors who will surrender to that.

Bill Duke

Appropriation is a fact of life; no point in complaining about it. But if that's the way the game's being played, let's do it on both sides. I don't want some white guy making 'A Rage in Harlem III' if I can't do 'The Godfather V' or 'E.T. III.'

Bill Duke

It's very difficult to direct something and do it well. But to direct and act - it's very hard.

Bill Duke

Never... never... whether you are five or 100, never give up. It's never too late.

Bill Duke

I could direct a very decent Holocaust film, but I don't have the same experience as a young boy who was rocked to sleep in the lap of a grandmother who had a tattooed number on her arm, who told him stories of the people who disappeared, the relatives she never saw again, as he drifted off with his cheek nestled next to that number.

Bill Duke

Without understanding your history, you can't get a perspective about the present.

Bill Duke

I had parents who taught me ethics that I didn't know they were teaching me at the time.

Bill Duke

AIDS is a very, very, very vicious disease, particularly in the black community.

Bill Duke