Derek Luke Quotations

I loved B.I.G., but not like I liked Tupac, because he was an actor, so I related to him.

I think it's time to do clean-up for a generation. I believe this is one of the movies that hits home for all colors and all races. Everybody I talk to, black or white, suburban, rich or poor, can relate to rejection, can relate to not having a father or a mother.

Playing in those old canvas Converse shoes was unreal. I don't see how they did it. Al (Shearer) tried to make a move on the court and broke his ankle.

Sometimes my faith becomes more sensitive to how people feel, as opposed to what needs to be.

Hip-hop was my first audience - I would rap in the mirror, walk down the street and listen to my Walkman.

I had a lot of fun with Val Kilmer. He's like a big kid.

I went to Jersey City State College to please a family member. I wasn't prepared for school. To say I failed out is putting it nicely.

In my heart of hearts I believe I was made to entertain.

When your heart is first, you can be absent of heart but when you put spirit first, you have a reason for why you do heart.

Denzel Washington invoked confidence. When you have confidence, you can do anything. And that's what happened. I learned about being honest and keeping it true, keeping it true in my performance.

I want what's mine. I see other actors who are doing very interesting roles, and I just want to continue to do things that are interesting, and things that people will go see in theaters.

Hollywood is a place where if you abide by the rules and laws, you can get depressed. That's why faith and spirituality is a higher law.

I went to college for one semester, and I took every subject I could, and I ended up failing. So I thought to myself, Ever since I was a kid, I've loved expression - and that's when I started thinking about acting.

I was working at the store on the Sony studios in Culver City. And I was literally holding a shirt when they came in and told me I'd got the part! It just shows dreams do come true.

I was watching TV at age 9 or 10, and my mom said that I came from the front room and I told her that I want to act. And she said if you want to do this at 18, then you can. It was a very simple story, yet, I do not even remember the conversation that I had with my mother. Until she reminded me of the story many years later.

As a parent my greatest fear is always anything that endangers my children.

Denzel's quality, I think, is his faith. You have all the action in your head and you have to believe in it and just do it. That's what he does and that's what he taught me to do.

Antwone's story was a story of hope and that's what appealed to me. I needed hope myself at that time. I think all actors give up at some time and think they're never going to make it.

Then I was working in a store in Newark, New Jersey, and I saw an actor in person, and I got so excited. My whole day changed. That's when I decided to challenge myself to make my dreams become a reality.

I don't think people come to television for spectacle. And I don't really have a lot of fun writing spectacle for television, I'll do that in features.

The magic isn't in getting married, it's in staying married

Spartan is about this elite unit of the armed forces named the Delta Force. I play a protege of Val Kilmer's character, and he kind of gives me a hard time.

Denzel Washington is a person I will always emulate. I emulate him because he focuses on real life. Because of that he has made me a better person.

I think many times in relationships as it escalates to marriage, what it takes to breed a marriage, is the same thing that it takes to breed a career.

I love hip-hop and you can't tell me I'm not a hip-hop artist.

I loved B.I.G., but not like I liked Tupac, because he was an actor, so I related to him.

I was discovered on the Sony lot through an audition by Denzel Washington.

I get to be in movies where it's mostly dialogue, and I want to be in something, that for me, feels like kickboxing.

A few years ago you couldn't go from TV to film. It was like a 'no no' but I believe when you find a plan and purpose that God has for your life, there's not anything man can do to you. Especially when your faith is not really standing in the wisdom of man, you're really standing in the wisdom of God.

I've always had to bind up and wrestle fear, because acting is really about faith. And faith and fear can't really stay in the same room. So, in order for you to be more than a conqueror, you're going to have to defeat fear with faith.

He's looking for the president's kidnapped daughter; everybody he calls on to help him is busy, but lo and behold, you look across the room, and I'm waiting for that action.

That old boot-camp process. It was two weeks, but it felt like six months.

It's a story about victory that will touch the lives of everyone who watches it. It's powerful.

I tried to copy some of his mannerisms at first but it didn't work. And then I just let the spirit of the character grow in me and it just took its rightful place. I started to speak the lines and it felt right.

Oh, my God! My wife and I, boy, we got down that night. On a personal note!

He said until they played Kentucky, they had been working so hard that they didn't even think about racism. They were just too busy working to try to win.