Viola Davis Quotes

But what the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls the butterfly. What we do as Black women are to take the worst situations and create from that point.

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.

Just like we have to redefine strength, we have to redefine beauty. It's not even about beautiful, it's about being who you are. It's about being honest. It's about stepping into, 'This is how I am in private, this is how I look, this is how I act, this is my mess, this is my strength, this is my beauty, this is my intelligence,' and then putting it out there that this is who I am.

What's released me most from the fear of aging is self-awareness. I've never determined my value based on my looks or anything physical. I've been through a lot in life, and what has gotten me through is strength of character and faith.

"There is an emotional abandonment that comes with poverty and being Black,”

I own my story. I own my failures. I'm not interested in being perfect. That's how I deal [with stress]. I don't put on a mask. I think that the effort to put on the mask is probably more detrimental than just being able to step up and admit your vulnerability in front of people who have enough empathy for you.

Working hard is great when it’s motivated by passion and love and enthusiasm. But working hard when it’s motivated by deprivation is not pleasant.

I will not be a mystery to my daughter. She will know me and I will share my stories with her—the stories of failure, shame and accomplishment. She will know she's not alone in that wilderness.

They say to serve is to love. I think to serve is to heal, too.

.“The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is an opportunity.”

…I know Jim Crow, I understand that time period. It’s a 100-year time period that was rife with lots of violence and anger, and people with lost dreams and hopes. I wanted the frustration and that anger to be more palpable.

The more I'm pushed in a position of leadership and I know I have to be the mouthpiece for so many other people who can't speak for themselves, the more confidence I'm gaining.

All dreams are within reach. All you have to do is keep moving towards them

You can't shine if you have two lines in the background as a bus driver. You can only shine if you're included in the narrative, and narratives start when you put pen to paper and you use your imagination. You just tell a story. That's all you do. You tell a story. You don't put any boundaries on it. It's infinite and that's the only way we can do what we do is that people use their imaginations so that we can be included in it.

I always say that one thing missing in cinema is that regular black woman…Not anyone didactic, or whose sole purpose in the narrative is to illustrate some social abnormality. There’s no meaning behind it, other than she is just there…I would love to have a black female Klute, or Kramer, or Unmarried Woman, or Annie Hall. But who’s gonna write it, who’s gonna produce it, who’s gonna see it, again and again and again?