Cicely Tyson Quotes

Now, I am perfectly willing to just enjoy my career by choosing roles simply because I consider them to be a challenge and doing the best possible job I can.
CICELY TYSON

Best Career Challenge Choice Perfection Possible Role Willing
My mother was an introvert and quite religious. And we were brought up in the church. And when she learned that I wanted to act, she simply said: ‘You cannot live here and do that.’
CICELY TYSON

Introvert Learning Live Mom Quite Religious Simplicity
When I told my mother that I wanted to be an actress, she said, you can’t live here and do that, and so I moved out. I was determined to prove her wrong because she was so sure that I was going to go astray. And that’s the juice that kept me going.
CICELY TYSON

Actor Determination Juice Live Mom Wrong
How do you project a character if you don’t have a sense of where she is from? I’ve always just gotten on a plane to go to the area to get a sense of what it is like, to smell it, feel the earth, hear people talk, go to the marketplaces.
CICELY TYSON

Character People Place Project Travel
One lady told me that before she saw ‘Sounder’ she didn’t believe black people could love each other, have deep relationships in the same way as white people.
CICELY TYSON

Believe Black Discrimination Love Oppression People Relationship White
We have to support our own films. If we don’t, how can we expect others to support them?
CICELY TYSON

Expectation Movie Support
I feel so guilty about the state of young people today. And I say that because our generation fought for everything. We fought to sit down at a counter, to sit on a bus. They were left with nothing to fight for.
CICELY TYSON

Feeling Fight Generation Guilty People Young
My gratification in working comes from the preparation and the building of the character.
CICELY TYSON

Build Character Gratitude Preparation
I don’t think you can measure wealth in dollars and cents. I really don’t believe that at all because there are some things that money cannot buy. One of them is health. And the other is security in your relationships and friends.
CICELY TYSON

Friendship Health Measurement Money Relationship Security Thinking
The choices of roles I made had to do with educating and entertaining. And as a result I found myself working only every two or three years.
CICELY TYSON

Choice Education Entertainment Role Work

Famous American actresses