Cicely Tyson Quotes
My mother was an introvert and quite religious. And we were brought up in the church. And when she learned that I wanted to act, she simply said: 'You cannot live here and do that.'
Quotes to Explore
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Never having alone time is real tough on people.
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No one should drive a hard bargain with an artist.
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I don't get irrational about it, but I do have a deeply-rooted competitive spirit. Not necessarily towards other people, but towards any obstacle that I set for myself.
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I had this 'War and Peace' thing of wanting to experience war as a kind of incredible human enterprise. I even applied to Officer Candidate School. Then the practical side of me kicked in and I thought, 'I really don't want to get drafted.' So I went down to the physical and checked every psychological disorder and drug on the medical history form.
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I had my father, and he was an amazing man and an amazing role model, so I always wanted to mirror that.
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I have so much music inside me I'm just trying to stay afloat. I don't tend to write for a particular band - you have to just write the songs and then let God into the room and let the music tell you what to do.
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I like it when somebody tells me a story, and I actually really feel that that's becoming like a lost art in American cinema.
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I don't want to go slumming in somebody else's pain just to write a book. I want to go into those darker places to shine a light on that experience and come out with a story that validates the human spirit.
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Meditation is difficult for many people because their thoughts are always on some distant object or place. One form of meditation is to label the thought as it appears and then choose to let it go.
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The time I trust will come, perhaps within the lives of some of us, when the outline of this science will be clearly made out and generally recognised, when its nomenclature will be fixed, and its principles form a part of elementary instruction.
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Human writing reflects that of the universe; it is its translation, but also its metaphor: it says something totally different, and it says the same thing.
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Novelists have to be adept at controlling the flow of information, and, most crucially, they have to be in charge of the narrative.
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If you look at Indian movies, every time they wanted an exotic locale, they would have a dance number in Kashmir. Kashmir was India's fairyland. Indians went there because in a hot country you go to a cold place. People would be entranced by the sight of snow.
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I think if a girl is easy to talk to then that's the first thing I look for. It's great when you meet a girl and three hours later you're like, 'Oh my gosh, we've been talking for three hours, what happened to the time?'
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I have won many awards and I am very happy about this, but I am not the best player in the world.
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I don't know why I'm suddenly playing nasty people. It is very fun, though, and it isn't real, at the end of the day.
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I'm not good at accepting help.
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War is the province of danger.
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Dick Cheney and Al Gore have redefined the role of the vice president in the minds of the public. It should be a big job, beyond simply checking the health status of the president.
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I find theatre easier than films, because it gives you an environment of a dark hall, the audience concentrating with you... whereas, film sets are not conducive to long rehearsals, and it is difficult to pick up the emotions amidst all that is going on around you.
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Mothers subject their daughters to a level of scrutiny people usually reserve for themselves. A mother's gaze is like a magnifying glass held between the sun's rays and kindling. It concentrates the rays of imperfection on her daughter's yearning for approval. The result can be a conflagration - whoosh.
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Unlike a lot of comics, I didn't care about getting on 'Saturday Night Live.' That show had such history and was so established that I didn't see the point.
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No one wants to live forever if it means becoming increasingly decrepit.
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My mother was an introvert and quite religious. And we were brought up in the church. And when she learned that I wanted to act, she simply said: 'You cannot live here and do that.'
