Acting's not about nose jobs and liposuction. It's about being truthful to what you're doing.
— Phylicia Rashad
If I had known being insane was so much fun, I'd have gone crazy long ago.
As artists, we do the work that we do. Receiving an award or not receiving an award in no way diminishes one's talent or value.
Things have a way of moving to the left, and then they move back to the right before somebody finds themselves in the center. That seems to be the nature of the creative world. It's not stagnant. I don't get upset about it.
Let's just say that the theater is not for the faint of heart.
I love theater. To have the people onstage right there, to be working in concert with other artists, this is a like a school of fish moving together.
How is it that you profess love for God but can't accept another human being?
We are told there is not enough money for education, but somehow there is enough money for people to raise billions of dollars to defeat somebody in an election? Oh! Okay! Does that make sense?
When I am presented with good work, I accept it. Wherever it is.
What he showed me was not what I had to get, but what I already have. I am just myself, and who I am is a lot.
What's in front of you is a whole world of experiences beyond your imagination. Put yourself, and your growth and development, first.
Any time women come together with a collective intention, it's a powerful thing. Whether it's sitting down making a quilt, in a kitchen preparing a meal, in a club reading the same book, or around the table playing cards, or planning a birthday party, when women come together with a collective intention, magic happens.
Let me just say that to imagine racism does not exist is imagination. And to imagine that it does not create its own set of problems is true imagination. So let's not imagine that racism is gone, extinguished, because it's not. We are seeing this in the top levels of the political arena, and we are seeing it very, very plainly.
There was a time when I couldn't watch sitcoms for a while because it was just cacophony, it was just noise.
Loving oneself isn't hard, when you understand who and what 'yourself' is. It has nothing to do with the shape of your face, the size of your eyes, the length of your hair or the quality of your clothes. It's so beyond all of those things and it's what gives life to everything about you. Your own self is such a treasure.
A person can be big, because of spirit. A person can be big because of their position in the family, the hierarchy in the family. That role has been played by women who are quite thin.
Success for me means being able to work. I don't look at so much at what I've done as much as I look to what I will do.
Historically, if you look at great civilizations, why do they crumble? Is it because of what's outside or because of something internal? It's always internal. It is.
I am having a good time doing nothing.
There's always something to suggest that you'll never be who you wanted to be. Your choice is to take it or keep on moving.
Everything you do, every thought you have, every word you say creates a memory that you will hold in your body. It's imprinted on you and affects you in subtle ways - ways you are not always aware of. With that in mind, be very conscious and selective.
There's all kinds of mothers, so to use the label 'mother' and to think you really understood all that a human being is because she's a mother, is a mistake.
If there are no films or plays of interest to me, I don't go. I know how to go to a museum or a library or pick up a good magazine or I can watch the sun set. I know how to live. There's a whole creation out there full of magic and wonder to be explored.
If the playwright knew every little thing about his play, why bother? There must be discovery all the time, otherwise why bother to do it?
Every role affords me something different in the way of understanding, and that's really why you take these roles, not to show that thing that people talk about of showing what you can do - that has nothing to do with anything.
I think the real understanding comes when we recognize our humanity in each other. That's not just between blacks and whites. That's between all religions as well.
Without an educated populace, democracy cannot sustain itself.
What I love about being an actress is being able to really look into myself and understand another human being.
The stubbornness I had as a child has been transmitted into perseverance. I can let go but I don't give up. I don't beat myself up about negative things.
