71 Quotes by Cicely Tyson

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.

Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew. They’re what make the instrument stretch, what make you go beyond the norm.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 have to support our own films. If we don’t, how can we expect others to support them?