I saw that I could not afford the luxury of just being an actress. So I made a choice to use my career as a platform to address the issues of the race I was born into.
Interpretation
Cicely Tyson emphasizes the importance of using one's career to advocate for important social issues.
In this quote, Cicely Tyson reflects on her decision to transcend the role of merely being an actress and to utilize her platform to confront the challenges faced by her community. This speaks to the notion that individuals can and should leverage their talents and careers to effect positive change in society, especially regarding issues of race and equality.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of advocacy in professional fields.
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, go to the marketplaces.
I don't think you can measure wealth in dollars and cents. I really 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.
Unless a piece really said something, I had no interest in it. I have got to know that I have served some purpose here.
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?
No more cutting grams, and wrapping grands up in rubber-bands, _x000D_ _x000D_ I'm a recovered man, our plans ta discover other lands, _x000D_ _x000D_ suburban places got me seeking for an oasis, cristal by the cases, ladies of all races with dime faces, sex on the white sand beaches of Saint Thomas, though this ain't promised,_x000D_ _x000D_ I'm as determined as them old timers.
You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.
I don't go to bed at 1 A.M. and wake up at 5 A.M. and say, 'Let's see if I can get this done today.'
I got knockback after knockback at auditions. Just before ‘Mulholland Dr.’ my agent told me I was so intense I was freaking people out. She told me I was a brilliant actor but the feedback was that I made people feel uncomfortable because I was so nervous and intense. I just sat there and blubbed. My mum was staying in LA at the time and I went to her and said: ‘I just can’t do this. I’m not cut out for it.’ She just said: ‘Don’t believe a word people say about you. Forget them.’
Nothing is going to be handed to you -- you have to make things happen.
I've always really just liked football, and I've always devoted a lot of time to it. When I was a kid, my friends would call me to go out with them, but I would stay home because I had practice the next day. I like going out, but you have to know when you can and when you can't.
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