It’s time for people to see us, people of colour, for what we really are: complicated.
VIOLA DAVISSelf-deprecation is not an answer to keeping one’s balance. I think that it’s very damaging.
More Viola Davis Quotes
-
-
Your 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 DAVIS -
That’s how I digest it, ’cause I can press the fast-forward button and I know that I’m gonna have to continue to be an actor, continue to make choices, continue to perform in a show every week.
VIOLA DAVIS -
They say, ‘To serve is to love,’ and I think to serve is to heal, too.
VIOLA DAVIS -
At the end of the day, nobody can tell you how to tackle failure or how to handle change. The world is very good at encouraging you to go along with the status quo and at basking in your successes.
VIOLA DAVIS -
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 -
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 -
It feels really good to embrace exactly who I am and be my sexy, to be my sexualized, to be my woman.
VIOLA DAVIS -
I would love to be remembered as a person who used her life to inspire others in any way, shape or form.
VIOLA DAVIS -
I think that you always want to gravitate towards people who absolutely are great at what they do and go for authenticity.
VIOLA DAVIS -
You can’t be hesitant about who you are.
VIOLA DAVIS -
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 DAVIS -
People are just not impressed by me at home.
VIOLA DAVIS -
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 -
Ordinary 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. And I think that’s a powerful message in this time of political strife.
VIOLA DAVIS -
That is a huge need for a lot of women, even in 2016. You can have the most ambitious career woman, and at the end of the day, she’s like, ‘I just want to be a mom.
VIOLA DAVIS -
I want my work to reflect my level of gifts and talent.
VIOLA DAVIS -
I needed to make my wig ogg because I no longer wanted to apologize for who I am
VIOLA DAVIS -
When you pray, God puts people in your life to lead you when you cannot lead yourself.
VIOLA DAVIS -
We as artists cannot be politicians. We as artists can only be truth-tellers.
VIOLA DAVIS -
Ultimately, it’s not your job, as an actress, to satisfy people’s expectations or image of who you should be. Even in your life, you are just who you are.
VIOLA DAVIS -
Do 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 DAVIS -
Relationships change us and make us grow.
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 -
And “classically not beautiful” is a fancy term for saying ugly. And denouncing you. And erasing you.
VIOLA DAVIS -
I want to span different genres. I want to be able to transform. I want to be able to be sexy, and funny, and quirky, and all the other things that I am. And I feel that the best way that I can achieve that is by producing.
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