Phylicia Rashad

“If there are no films or plays of interest to me, I don't go. I know how to go to a museum or a library or pick up a good magazine or I can watch the sun set. I know how to live. There's a whole creation out there full of magic and wonder to be explored.”

“Acting's not about nose jobs and liposuction. It's about being truthful to what you're doing.”

“What he showed me was not what I had to get, but what I already have. I am just myself, and who I am is a lot.”

“Historically, if you look at great civilizations, why do they crumble? Is it because of what's outside or because of something internal? It's always internal. It is.”

“The stubbornness I had as a child has been transmitted into perseverance. I can let go but I don't give up. I don't beat myself up about negative things.”

“Any time women come together with a collective intention, it's a powerful thing. Whether it's sitting down making a quilt, in a kitchen preparing a meal, in a club reading the same book, or around the table playing cards, or planning a birthday party, when women come together with a collective intention, magic happens.”

“When I am presented with good work, I accept it. Wherever it is.”

“Things have a way of moving to the left, and then they move back to the right before somebody finds themselves in the center. That seems to be the nature of the creative world. It's not stagnant. I don't get upset about it.”

“There's always something to suggest that you'll never be who you wanted to be. Your choice is to take it or keep on moving.”

“Every role affords me something different in the way of understanding, and that's really why you take these roles, not to show that thing that people talk about of showing what you can do - that has nothing to do with anything.”

“Everything you do, every thought you have, every word you say creates a memory that you will hold in your body. It's imprinted on you and affects you in subtle ways - ways you are not always aware of. With that in mind, be very conscious and selective.”

“Let's just say that the theater is not for the faint of heart.”

“Success for me means being able to work. I don't look at so much at what I've done as much as I look to what I will do.”

“How is it that you profess love for God but can't accept another human being?”

“If I had known being insane was so much fun, I'd have gone crazy long ago.”

“I think the real understanding comes when we recognize our humanity in each other. That's not just between blacks and whites. That's between all religions as well.”

“If the playwright knew every little thing about his play, why bother? There must be discovery all the time, otherwise why bother to do it?”

“A person can be big, because of spirit. A person can be big because of their position in the family, the hierarchy in the family. That role has been played by women who are quite thin.”

“I am having a good time doing nothing.”

“There's all kinds of mothers, so to use the label 'mother' and to think you really understood all that a human being is because she's a mother, is a mistake.”