Bill Duke Quotes

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Bill Duke

Profession : Actor

Birth : February 26, 1943

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

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

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

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

Bill Duke

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

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

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

Bill Duke

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

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

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

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

Pain has no color.

Bill Duke

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

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

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

Bill Duke

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

Bill Duke

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

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

It really upsets me that the media insists on turning 'Do the Right Thing' or 'Boyz N the Hood' into 'black films.' They are American films. They may open the window on the black experience, but they had things to say to everybody. That's why they were so successful.

Bill Duke