Viola Davis quotes

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)
And this is what was fascinating to me about 'The Help'; they were ordinary people who did extraordinary things. View quote
Viola Davis
I love Wal-Mart. You can put that down. I love Wal-Mart. My husband and I hang out there. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Viola Davis
The only thing that separates women of color from everyone else is opportunity. View quote
Viola Davis
In life, you know, they do this in focus groups; if you were in such and such circumstance, what would you do? Well, you never know what you're going do unless you're faced with it. View quote
Viola Davis
When you're working as an actor, you don't think that when you get out of school, it's going to be so hard to get a job. Just to get a job. Any job. Whatsoever. You don't think that people are going to see you in a certain way. View quote
Viola Davis
Sometimes you see how humanity can rise above any kind of cultural ills and hate that a person's capacity to love and communicate and forgive can be bigger than anything else. View quote
Viola Davis
I can't deal with actors! I can't deal with myself. We're neurotic and miserable ... I love doing what I'm doing, but while I'm doing it, I'm miserable. View quote
Viola Davis
You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there. (Viola Davis)
Your ability to adapt to failure, and navigate your way out of it, absolutely 100 percent makes you who you are. View quote
Viola Davis
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. View quote
Viola Davis
I didn't see myself any different from my white counterparts in school. I just didn't! I thought I could do what they did. And what I didn't do well, I thought people were going to give me the opportunity to do well, because maybe they saw my talent, so they would give me a chance. I had no idea that they would see me completely different. View quote
Viola Davis
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. View quote
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! View quote
Viola Davis
I worked in television; I'm the Failed Pilot Queen, I've done so many television shows, pilots, theater ... when you do it for so long, I'm telling you, you get to the point where it becomes varied because you take what's available for a number of reasons. It's just an occupational hazard. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Viola Davis
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. View quote
Viola Davis
Sometimes you take a job for the money, sometimes you take it for the location, sometimes you take it for the script; there are just a number of reasons, and ultimately what you see is the whole landscape of it. But I can tell you from behind the scenes - that's what it is, as an actor. (Viola Davis)
I think that's something that people feel that I do really well; I don't mind it, because ultimately I think the characters I play move people, and who wouldn't want to move people? View quote
Viola Davis
Artists and actors of color have to alter and water ourselves down for Hollywood, but I refuse to be pacified. View quote
Viola Davis
...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. View quote
Viola Davis
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. View quote
Viola Davis