Cicely Tyson Quotes

• 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.

  Cicely Tyson

  Greatness, Deep Thought, Trying

  211 Copy quote

• 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.

  Cicely Tyson

  Life, Women, Adversity

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  144 Copy quote

• 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.

  Cicely Tyson

  Fighting, Long, Matter

  132 Copy quote

• 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.

  Cicely Tyson

  Quilts, Color, Yarn

  110 Copy quote

• 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.

  Cicely Tyson

  Believe, Thinking, Mountain

  "A New Mountain to Climb: Heroes I've Met and the Mountains They Climb Every Day". Book by Neal McCoy, p. 72, 2010.

  72 Copy quote

• Whatever good I have accomplished as an actress I believe came in direct proportion to my efforts to portray black women who have made positive contributions to my heritage.

  Cicely Tyson

  Believe, Role Models, Effort

  49 Copy quote

• 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.

  Cicely Tyson

  Race, Careers, Luxury

  "For Cicely Tyson and Kerry Washington, Roles of a Lifetime". Interview with Philip Galanes, www.nytimes.com. September 26, 2013.

  64 Copy quote

• 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.

  Cicely Tyson

  Equality, Men, Rights

  66 Copy quote

• 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

  Cicely Tyson

  Moving On, Mother, Follow Your Heart

  91 Copy quote

• 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.

  Cicely Tyson

  "How Cicely Tyson Prepared For Her Groundbreaking Role In 'Roots' (VIDEO)". "Oprah's Master Class" with Oprah Winfrey, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 31, 2014.

  32 Copy quote

• You never know what motivates you.

  Cicely Tyson

  Inspirational, Motivational, Knows

  32 Copy quote

• I will lead my people out of bondage, Lord.

  Cicely Tyson

  People, Lord, Bondage

  "Fictional character: Harriet Tubman". "A Woman Called Moses", radio.wpsu.org. December 11, 1978.

  22 Copy quote

• 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

  Cicely Tyson

  Choices, Decision, Roles

  18 Copy quote

• Children should have a balanced start in life: a mother and a father. I think that's the only reason to get married.

  Cicely Tyson

  Mother, Children, Father

  28 Copy quote

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

  Cicely Tyson

  Support, Film, Ifs

  25 Copy quote

• 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

  Cicely Tyson

  Roles, Want, Firsts

  15 Copy quote

• 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.

  Cicely Tyson

  Relationship, Men, Thinking

  67 Copy quote

• Ali... we should have gone to see that movie. Malcolm X was another one

  Cicely Tyson

  Should Have, Gone, Should

  6 Copy quote

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