Viola Davis Quotes
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.
Quotes to Explore
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Almost all our suffering is the product of our thoughts. We spend nearly every moment of our lives lost in thought, and hostage to the character of those thoughts. You can break this spell, but it takes training just like it takes training to defend yourself against a physical assault.
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My house looks like it was decorated by a 14-year old with a platinum American Express card.
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The life of an actor is never one to get comfortable.
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There is a humanitarian impulse that one aspires to and there are days when one doesn't do it very well.
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If someone says, 'I love that lipstick,' I will always try to answer, honestly, if I know what color it is. It's a connective tissue.
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Wong Kar-wai and Ang Lee are two Asian directors I'm really fond of.
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One of the things I love about acting is that I can enter into these other people's lives. But going back to being me at the end of the day is very important, too. That process of remembering who I am.
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I just love France, I love French people, I love the French language, I love French food. I love their mentality. I just feel like it's me. I'm very French.
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That's what sets apart one actor from another, and that you can't teach. You can't give someone that. When you're working, putting a character together, or in a scene, that's where things will happen that you have to have the intuition to notice them, and to register them.
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Most people who went about saying a ghost had poked them with a brolly would be locked up somewhere.
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Chanting was very deep for me. It was as if I remembered it. It was like a real surrender.
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Teens want to read something that isn't a lie; we adults wish we could put our heads under the blankets and hide from the scary story we're writing for our kids.
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Hopefully in the future, generational challenges will be measured by achievement, not gender.
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We should not give up and we should not allow the problem to defeat us.
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With disadvantages enough to bring him to humility, a Scotsman is one of the proudest things alive.
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I made a very conscious decision to quit acting. I was on a series, and we were in the process of renegotiating. They had an idea of what they thought I was worth, and I had an idea that was quite different.
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I don't want everything to be flowery perfection. I like it there to be a charge behind it, you know?
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Know your priorities and identify the five powerful action steps that you intend to take to move your initiatives forward each day. If you go to a tree with an ax and take five whacks at the tree every day, it doesn't matter if it's an oak or a redwood; eventually, the tree has to fall down.
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It’s interesting that in the Bible, in the book of Ecclesiastes, the only practical advice given about living a meaningful life is to find a job you like, enjoy your marriage, and obey God. It’s as though God is saying, Write a good story, take somebody with you, and let me help.
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A friend of mine introduced me to Thurston Moore because she thought I would like him. He was playing with the tallest band in the world, the Coachmen. They were sort of like Talking Heads, jangly guitar, Feelies guitar. Anyway, it was love at first sight. His band broke up that night. And we started playing.
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The lesson I have learnt is that when a family and a business function, they function together. You have to have a family that works and a business that works and the two will end up working well alongside.
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It is very bad for (an artist) to talk about how he (creates). It is not the (artist's) province to explain or to run guided tours through the more difficult country of his work. It's none of their business that you had to learn. Let them think you were born that way.
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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.
