[I listen to] “Uptown Funk”, Bruno Mars, sometimes even Nina Simone and Adele. Whatever comes up, whatever floats my boat, whatever makes me tap into something in me to just decompress – I listen to that.
VIOLA DAVIS
We grew up in abject poverty. Acting, writing scripts and skits were a way of escaping our environment at a very young age.
More Viola Davis Quotes
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![Viola Davis Quote - [I listen to] “Uptown Funk”, Bruno Mars, sometimes even Nina Simone and Adele. Whatever comes up, whatever floats my boat, whatever makes me tap into something in me to just decompress – I listen to that.](https://minimalistquotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/i-listen-to-uptown-funk-bruno-mars-sometimes-even-.jpg)
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Acting, it’s the disappearance of self, disappearance of your own needs and your own wants and the kind of embracing of the character that makes it work.
VIOLA DAVIS -
They say the two most important days in a person’s life were the day you were born and the day you discover why you were born.
VIOLA DAVIS -
They say the two most important days in a person’s life were the day you were born and the day you discover why you were born.
VIOLA DAVIS -
The only thing that separates women of color from everyone else is opportunity.
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If the opportunity is not out there for you to play it, then you don’t see it.
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That’s why there’s so much bad acting out there, because you could see actors watching themselves.
VIOLA DAVIS -
They say the two most important days in a person’s life were the day you were born and the day you discover why you were born.
VIOLA DAVIS -
One of the people I’ve always wanted to emulate in pursuing that dream was Meryl Streep, in terms of the different types of roles she’s been able to play and the number of different stories she’s been able to tell.
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And that’s what people want to see when they go to the theater. I believe at the end of the day, they want to see themselves – parts of their lives they can recognize. And I feel if I can achieve that, it’s pretty spectacular.
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All you really need to do is shift people just a tiny bit for change to happen. It doesn’t have to be huge and humongous.
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Every artist, true artist, struggles with an overwhelming sense of feeling like you’re not worthy.
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I’ve always just simply seen myself as an actor. And I believe that it serves me well to just think in terms of my craft. If hypothetically, I saw myself only as a sex symbol, or as some other limited stereotype, I think I would feel like a complete failure.
VIOLA DAVIS -
Tyler 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 DAVIS -
I do believe that there are African Americans who have thick accents. My mom has a thick accent; my relatives have thick accents. But sometimes you have to adjust when you go into the world of film, TV, theatre, in order to make it accessible to people.
VIOLA DAVIS -
I think sometimes what people miss about black people is that we’re complicated.
VIOLA DAVIS