As an artist, you’ve got to see the mess. That’s what we do. We get a human being, and it’s like putting together a puzzle. And the puzzle has got to be a mixture, a multifaceted mixture of human emotions, and not all of it is going to be pretty.
VIOLA DAVISCicely Tyson was my inspiration to become an actor.
More Viola Davis Quotes
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Knowing the only way out is education, even if you don’t have parents that are extraordinarily wealthy. I understand that I have to be an active participant in [my daughter’s] education in order for her to thrive in the world.
VIOLA DAVIS -
When you pray, God puts people in your life to lead you when you cannot lead yourself.
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I’ve been in this business 25 years. I’ve been eking out a living doing Broadway, off-Broadway… I’ve seen the unemployment line a lot.
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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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In my mind, I see a line. And over that line, I see green fields and lovely flowers and beautiful, white women with their arms stretched out to me over that line, but I can’t seem to get there now. I can’t seem to get over that line.
VIOLA DAVIS -
I love Wal-Mart. You can put that down. I love Wal-Mart. My husband and I hang out there.
VIOLA DAVIS -
I guess they say, “Necessity is the mother of invention” because you have two stark choices when you find yourself in a really desperate situation. You can either fold and cave-in to it or you can become really passionate about getting out of it.
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Relationships change us and make us grow.
VIOLA DAVIS -
Even when I get the fried-chicken special of the day, I have to dig into it like it’s filet mignon.
VIOLA DAVIS -
Let me tell you something: The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.
VIOLA DAVIS -
Actor is just a strange profession, it really is, that you could be in front of the same people for years, and all of a sudden one thing happens, and it finally clicks.
VIOLA DAVIS -
I’ve been to acting school and I think that at the end of the day, when you just focus on the work and you’re comfortable with who you are, that at some point someone’s going to recognize your talent and give you an opportunity.
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[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 -
You can’t be hesitant about who you are.
VIOLA DAVIS -
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