Antoine Fuqua quotes

Born
January 19, 1966, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.

Occupation
Director, producer.

Antoine Fuqua is an American film director, producer, and actor. He began his career in the entertainment industry as a music video director. Fuqua’s feature film debut was with the crime drama The Replacement Killers (1998).

Movies
The Equalizer 2 (2018)
The Magnificent Seven (2016)
Training Day (2001)

My responsibility is, I’m always trying to look for new people of color or even artistic people who need a chance.
– Antoine Fuqua

It takes all sorts of people to come together to fight tyranny. It’s not about one race anymore.
– Antoine Fuqua

Some men don’t gel when it comes to work – you have different work ethics, different opinions, different points of views, different methods of filmmaking – and we didn’t gel.
– Antoine Fuqua

But I like to go to movies with my son because it’s still fun; it reminds me of why I make movies.
– Antoine Fuqua

I think that the dialogue between police officers and the black community has to get better, but not better in a way where, ‘Oh, let’s talk about it when something horrible happens.’ The dialogue has to be going on consistently, every day.
– Antoine Fuqua

Making a movie to entertain people, that’s just as important as telling people about our stories.
– Antoine Fuqua

I like making movies.
– Antoine Fuqua

What I learned is, don’t forget who you are, because that’s what’s going to make you a filmmaker.
– Antoine Fuqua

What’s it like finding out Denzel Washington wants you to direct his next movie? It’s like getting a phone call from Muhammad Ali or Michael Jordan saying they want you to coach them.
– Antoine Fuqua

I box every day. I have a gym built wherever I go, so I still got my gym. Every day, I try to get in there and work out the mitts.
– Antoine Fuqua

I like the opportunity to make films.
– Antoine Fuqua

I started studying mythology, just on my own. Joseph Campbell, mysticism.
– Antoine Fuqua

The simple answer is I’d just be a guy trying to feed my family, like everybody else. The complicated answer is, I think I’d be in some sort of military or government world of some sort.
– Antoine Fuqua

Every time I look through the lens with Denzel, I’m like a 12-year-old kid. It’s hard for me to look at the monitor because the fun is in watching him.
– Antoine Fuqua

I don’t know if Prince even really paid attention to time. The moment of creativity is the moment, and you go at that moment.
– Antoine Fuqua

I grew up an athlete, growing up in Pittsburgh. I played basketball. I played football. I played a little bit of baseball in my earlier years.
– Antoine Fuqua

Kurosawa is the sensei, the Shakespeare, of filmmaking.
– Antoine Fuqua

Cinema Paradiso, because it reminds me of why I make movies, the magic of movies, the romance of movies.
– Antoine Fuqua

So it’s hard to be an artist and be true to the reality of the world you want to create and also make it entertaining and successful financially.
– Antoine Fuqua

I believe in God, absolutely.
– Antoine Fuqua

I grew up watching ‘Rocky.’ I still love that movie, the original one.
– Antoine Fuqua

When you’re a director, and you look at Scorsese‘s work, he’s always challenging us to push the envelope and break the rules. Someone like that is necessary and a godsend.
– Antoine Fuqua

If you want to be in Hollywood, and if you want to make big international movies, you have to be able to make movies that don’t have anything to do with social status or politics. To limit yourself to just do these little small movies and call it black cinema itself is a mistake to me.
– Antoine Fuqua

I don’t know, you know, when I look at it now, I don’t know what in the world made me think I could become a director. I really don’t.
– Antoine Fuqua

You don’t just have to see superhero movies. Ultimately, those movies are westerns – superheroes are good guys fighting bad guys in a landscape. In westerns, that divide couldn’t be any more clear, but the only superpower you have is that you’re a quicker shot than the other guy.
– Antoine Fuqua

Remakes have been done forever. People talk about ‘Scarface‘ and don’t even know it was a remake.
– Antoine Fuqua

It’s a dumb question, because I don’t look at things as a black director, just as a director, so ask me as a director first and we can segue into the colour thing later.
– Antoine Fuqua

I just think you can’t shut your life off to just, you know, one thing. You gotta be open-minded. Explore things. Feed your artist.
– Antoine Fuqua

I became a director just for the love of movies, because of the power of cinema.
– Antoine Fuqua

I’ve become friends with Michael Mann and Oliver Stone; I’ve seen those guys work and that was great to see.
– Antoine Fuqua

If you win, if you make money. If you do quality work, then other people of color, whatever color that is, can get in the door.
– Antoine Fuqua

I was a fan of baseball growing up. We played baseball; I used to play in an A&P parking lot. It wasn’t always easy to find a good baseball field to play in.
– Antoine Fuqua

In our culture, I think that there is no markers anymore. Young men don’t really have something that says you’re a grown up now, until you have a baby.
– Antoine Fuqua

I’d like to think that the door is always open for just the best actor for the role, you know? Race or gender shouldn’t have anything to do with it, unless the character or story is focused on that for some particular reason.
– Antoine Fuqua