Here are some Cicely Tyson quotes that will inspire you to be brave. Her life has seen its share of ups and downs. These quotations are based on her work and personal experiences. Read and share to spread happiness around the world.
This Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress has dedicated her life to shattering preconceptions about black women. Her death on January 28, 2021, left a vacuum in the American cinema industry. She starred in a number of films and television shows, including ‘Sounder’ and ‘How to Get Away with Murder.’
Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew.
You never know what motivates you.
Age is just a number. Life and aging are the greatest gifts that we could ever have.
I have learned not to allow rejection to move me.
One lady told me that before she saw ‘Sounder’ she didn’t believe black people could love each other, and have deep relationships in the same way as white people.
I think when you begin to think of yourself as having achieved something, then there’s nothing left for you to work towards. I want to believe that there is a mountain so high that I will spend my entire life striving to reach the top of it.
We have to support our films we don’t, how can we expect others to support them?
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The choices of roles I made had to do with educating and entertaining. And as a result, I found myself working only every two or three years.
When I told my mother that I wanted to be an actress, she said, you can’t live here and do that, and so I moved out. I was determined to prove her wrong because she was so sure that I was going to go astray. And that’s the juice that kept me going.
I don’t think you can measure wealth in dollars and cents. I don’t believe that at all because there are some things that money cannot buy. One of them is health. And the other is security in your relationships and friends.
One of the things I have always said about the man-woman relationship is that I don’t want anybody to walk ahead of me, and I don’t want anybody to walk behind me. I want a man who will walk along beside me. And that’s how I feel about equal rights.
In my early years, several experiences made me decide I could not afford the luxury of just being an actress. There were several issues I wanted to address. And I wanted to use my career as a platform.
I don’t condemn anyone for making their choices. If someone chooses those roles, fine. But not for me. When someone stops me and says, you’re the reason I became an actress that lets me know I made the right decision.
When I attack a role, be it TV, film, or stage, the first thing I say is, I don’t want to know anything. If it’s good I don’t want to hear it; if it’s bad I don’t want to hear it. The only thing either thing can do is distract me. I like to stay focused.
.. we should have gone to see that movie. Malcolm X was another one.
I was in California when this journalist made a blanket statement about the fact that she did not think that black men and women had the kind of love relationship that Rebecca and Nathan had in Sounder.
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.’
How do you project a character if you don’t have a sense of where she is from? I’ve always just gotten on a plane to go to the area to get a sense of what it is like, to smell it, feel the earth, hear people talk, and go to the marketplaces.
I feel so guilty about the state of young people today. And I say that because our generation fought for everything. We fought to sit down at a counter, to sit on a bus. They were left with nothing to fight for.
My gratification in working comes from the preparation and the building of character.
Cicely Tyson Quotes Just As I Am
Cicely Tyson is recognized for playing African-American women who are powerful and assertive. She won a slew of honors during the course of her seven-decade career. She endured numerous hardships and hurdles throughout her life as a woman of color. In her memoir, ‘Just as I Am,’ she detailed her life story.
You always seek to control others when you are not in full ownership of yourself.
That is, in this life, who we are for one another–fellow sojourners and witnesses. We are here to see and hear one another.
The Father has a way of choosing the flawed to attempt what many deem improbable.
Knowing your generational story firms the ground upon which you stand. It makes your life, your struggles, and triumphs, bigger than your lone existence. It connects you to a grand plot line.
Embedded in this woman’s observation was an assumption that lives at the center of all bias.
Healing, as I see it, is not the absence of pain. Rather it is a gradual reduction in the ache.
God is the Master of the unlikely.
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Nearly all parents I know can sum up their aspirations for their children in one word: better.
When you know your history, you know your value. You know the price that has been paid for you to be here.
What’s for you in this life, you will get. And what is not for you, you will never get.
We each have many faces and various ways of appearing and behaving. In one moment, we may show remarkable steadfastness, and in another, an aching vulnerability.
When you don’t know your true value, you see the world through the lens of how you don’t measure up.
Social transformation is not measured in weeks or months but in generations.
Death is a love note to the living, to regard every day, every breath, as sacred.
That’s the power of education. It expands one’s field of vision, and in so doing, it lifts entire families and communities.
Cicely Tyson Quotes Madea’s Family Reunion
Cicely Tyson is an actress who has appeared in films such as Roots, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Sounder (for which she received an Academy Award nomination), Fried Green Tomatoes, The Help, King (in which she played Coretta Scott King), A Woman Called Moses (in which she played Harriet Tubman), The Marva Collins Story, The Women of Brewster Place, and others.
My mother was a real whore and a junkie, and she traded me for $10 and a fix.
Mable ‘Madea’ Simmons: Look girl I’m done told you already to stop poppin’ that gum!- Nikki: Look! If you touch me, I’m gonna call 911!- Mable ‘Madea’ Simmons: My daughter tried that. I hit her so hard she dialed 919!
I am not getting married today, I have been beaten every day since I got engaged, and I have made excuses for him over, and over, and over again. But it’s time for me to live for Lisa.
Family reunions are about uniting the family, bringing together the young and old. Singing and dancing and thanking God, giving Him the glory. Thanking him for getting us over.
I want every single one of you, young man, and young woman, to turn to the next person standing alongside you. Grab them and hug them and tell them that you love ’em.
Love is many things. It’s varied. One thing it is not and can never be is unsure.
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The man and woman who were born here gave birth to this generation. They were slaves. They worked this ground, but they bought it from the widow of the slave owner and that’s the kind of blood we have running – through – our veins.
What kind a lawyer doesn’t know how to lie? Lie and lawyer go together lie-lawyer… lie-lawyer!
Unless a piece said something, I had no interest in it. I have got to know that I have served some purpose here.
Now, I am perfectly willing to just enjoy my career by choosing roles simply because I consider them to be a challenge and doing the best possible job I can.
The gratification comes, for me, in the doing of it. And once I’ve done it, I can’t do anything about it if it’s good or if it’s bad.
As far as ‘Jane Pittman,’ I don’t know that I could verbalize, to this day, what I felt once I got into that role. I did a tremendous amount of research. I need to feel as though I am in the person’s skin.
Cicely Tyson Challenges Quote
My story will never be finished, nor should it be. For as long as God grants me breath, I will be living–and writing–my next chapter.
Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really. They’re what make the instrument stretch – what makes you go beyond the norm.
I am not a quitter. I will fight until I drop. It is just a matter of having some faith in the fact that as long as you are able to draw breath in the universe, you have a chance.
You never know what motivates you.
My gratification in working comes from the preparation and the building of character.
I have learned not to allow rejection to move me.
The moment anyone tries to demean or degrade you in any way, you have to know how great you are. Nobody would bother to beat you down if you were not a threat.
I’ve never encouraged anyone to go into this business. But I would never discourage anybody either because no one could discourage me.
In my work, people say I’m strong. But I’m not aware of any of it. If I were conscious of it that can only get in the way of future performances.
I feel so guilty about the state of young people today. And I say that because our generation fought for everything. We fought to sit down at a counter, to sit on a bus. They were left with nothing to fight for.
We have to support our own films. If we don’t, how can we expect others to support them?
I am the sum total of each one of the women I have played.
All I have to do is find someone who has something to say that will enrich my life and they can’t get rid of me.
Children should have a balanced start in life: a mother and a father. I think that’s the only reason to get married.
Use me, God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself.
God is the Master of the unlikely.
I’m grateful that God often laughs at our plans and substitutes his better ones.’
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My mother’s falsehoods were not outright fabrications but lies of omission.
What’s for you in this life, you will get. And what is not for you, you will never get. Do you hear me?
If each person in this world will simply take a small piece of this huge thing, this amazing quilt, and work it regardless of the color of the yarn, we will have harmony on this planet.
I’m a firm believer in divine guidance.
I’ve never really worked for money. It’s so important for me to have peace of mind, body, and soul than to have all the riches.
To soar toward what’s possible, you must leave behind what’s comfortable.
You always seek to control others when you are not in full ownership of yourself.
Turning a blind eye to our history has not saved us from its consequences.
