Cicely Tyson was my inspiration to become an actor.
VIOLA DAVISCicely Tyson was my inspiration to become an actor.
VIOLA DAVISCreativity only resonates if you infuse real life into the work.
VIOLA DAVISIf the opportunity is not out there for you to play it, then you don’t see it.
VIOLA DAVISYour internal dialogue has got to be different from what you say. And, you know, in film, hopefully that registers and speaks volumes. It’s always the unspoken word and what’s happening behind someone’s eyes that makes it so rich.
VIOLA DAVISYou cannot live to please everyone else. You have to edify, educate and fulfill your own dreams and destiny.
VIOLA DAVISThe only thing that separates women of color from everyone else is opportunity.
VIOLA DAVISI want my work to reflect my level of gifts and talent.
VIOLA DAVISAnd “classically not beautiful” is a fancy term for saying ugly. And denouncing you. And erasing you.
VIOLA DAVISI talk to women all the time and try to impart wisdom.
VIOLA DAVISI don’t have any time to stay up all night worrying about what someone who doesn’t love me has to say about me.
VIOLA DAVISTyler Perry’s ‘Madea Goes to Jail!’ Which, I have to tell you, of everything that I’ve ever done in my career, that’s the only thing that’s perked up the ears of my nieces and nephews. That is it, that’s done it for them. That made me a bona fide star in their eyes!
VIOLA DAVISI just look at women sometimes and I just want to ask them, “Do you know how fabulous you are?”
VIOLA DAVISI really wanted to show [in fences] a marriage that is working. Not perfect, but working.
VIOLA DAVISOrdinary people who are just kind of just going about their lives are transformed into heroes because they have the courage to put their voices out there. I think that’s a powerful message in this time of political strife.
VIOLA DAVISDo not live someone else’s life and someone else’s idea of what womanhood is. Womanhood is you. Womanhood is everything that’s inside of you.
VIOLA DAVISI love Wal-Mart. You can put that down. I love Wal-Mart. My husband and I hang out there.
VIOLA DAVIS