A biography for Kerry Washingtonhasn’t been written yet.
“I have to make sure that I don't silence myself about the things that I believe in, because sometimes the fear creeps in of 'What if fewer people watch the show or fewer people hire me because I express my politics?' For me, the commitment is to never be quiet just because I'm in the public eye.”
“I'm doing this play right now, the new David Mamet play. It's called 'Race,' and it's very interesting how people really leave the theater filled with the desire to talk about the play and the issues and the characters, and how they're all navigating their personal views around race.”
“I bring something to the table as a woman; I bring something to the table as a woman of color.”
“Shoes define how you walk in the world and how you stand: like, what is your posture in life?”
“I have girlfriends in this business who talk about their personal lives, and it works for them, and I love it. But not for me.”
“I think generalizations of any sort are dangerous. I'll say, if that is the case - right now it's an American issue.”
“I don't think I consciously say, 'What would Olivia Pope do?' but there's a new thread of belief in my own capacity that I think comes from her. She makes it happen. She figures it out. She fixes it.”
“So many struggled so that all of us could have a voice in this great democracy and live up to the first three words of our constitution: We the people. I love that phrase so much. Throughout our country's history, we've expanded the meaning of that phrase to include more and more of us. That's what it means to move forward.”
“I've had friends of mine say, like, they're tired of 'gayface,' and I was like, 'What's gayface?' They were like, 'It's the gay version of blackface: like, come in and be more effeminate.'”
“I think every girl should have a tailor in her phone. It's part of why we beat ourselves up, or why shopping is so frustrating and hard: we have this assumption that when you take something off the rack, it will fit you.”
“For the red carpet, I'm totally a stiletto girl. But in the rest of my life, I'd say I'm 50/50. I love a good heel, but I also have a really great sneaker collection. That's the Bronx girl in me.”
“I have to take care of myself in order to live life the way I want to. It's important to have rest days. But in the long run, if I don't work out for, like, three days, I feel worse, not better.”
“It's interesting how much people long to fill in the gaps when someone in the public eye doesn't share their personal life. I understand their frustration.”
“I'm a person who's always been politically active and passionate about people's rights.”
“You know what's funny is that I have this ongoing relationship with the city of Washington D.C. I went to George Washington University, and my nickname was K-Dub - based on G-Dub - and I'm now on the board of trustees at George Washington University.”
“I always prided myself on the fact that I could live out of milk crates forever. It was kind of my way of detaching from materialism.”
“Being the one woman in the room should not be seen as a victory. If there's only one of us in the room, we're still a token; we don't actually have an empowered voice. If there's two of us, we're still a minority. If there's three, then we're allowed to have a multiplicity of opinions.”
“I have an amazing social media manager, Allison Peters, who is one of my closest friends since childhood.”
“I come from a family with a really strong work ethic - not just my parents, but my aunts, uncles and cousins. It rubbed off on me. I have a cousin in The Bronx who says I'm like the longshoreman of actors. I am a worker.”
“Today there are people trying to take away rights that our mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers fought for: our right to vote, our right to choose, affordable quality education, equal pay, access to health care. We the people can't let that happen.”