Michael Emerson Quotes

Quotes about:

• I think people respond to villains because people in general are more villainous than heroic.

  Michael Emerson

  Thinking, People, Heroic

  Source: www.avclub.com

  10 Copy quote

• In your actor's heart, you know when you're playing well. Others may not always agree with you, but I'm always aware of when the scene is cooking or not. You have an instinct about that from years of doing scenes and plays, and I think it stands you in good stead even in the TV world.

  Michael Emerson

  Heart, Thinking, Play

  Source: www.avclub.com

  9 Copy quote

• My mother always told me growing up I had a punchable face. Little did I know she was predicting my television career.

  Michael Emerson

  Mother, Growing Up, Careers

  8 Copy quote

• I ask the clergy why don't I see myself represented in leadership? And I'm told, and this happens quite a bit, "We don't think about race when we hire. We just hire the best person for the job."

  Michael Emerson

  Jobs, Thinking, Race

  Source: www.pbs.org

  4 Copy quote

• Maybe there's even anger. But if they make it through that they come to a new agreement, and they start creating a new culture, and it becomes something that people just - a lot of times they'll say, "I couldn't live without it. I just have to be there."

  Michael Emerson

  Agreement, Creating, People

  Source: www.pbs.org

  9 Copy quote

• To a large extent, people's interest in the character is the mystery of the character.

  Michael Emerson

  Character, People, Mystery

  Source: www.avclub.com

  7 Copy quote

• Now they had to sit in separate places and sometimes they'd even have to sit outside and look through the windows. But they did worship together.

  Michael Emerson

  Together, Looks, Worship

  Source: www.pbs.org

  7 Copy quote

• Every pastor I talk to says, and particularly if they're African American they'll say, "I'm not black enough for African Americans. I'm not white enough for the whites. I'm not Hispanic enough."

  Michael Emerson

  White, African American, Black

  Source: www.pbs.org

  4 Copy quote

• So these are the kind of things that now when people are trying to move towards multiracial congregations that they're stressing. They're talking about these scriptures that say we ought to come together, and that at Pentecost, when that the Holy Spirit is said to have come upon the first Christians, they were given the ability to speak in different languages, and so that no matter who the people were, they could all worship together.

  Michael Emerson

  Christian, Stress, Moving

  Source: www.pbs.org

  9 Copy quote

• I really do think that every time you play a role well, you are in danger of being identified with that role until the next big thing comes along.

  Michael Emerson

  Thinking, Play, Roles

  Source: www.avclub.com

  6 Copy quote

• And again, this connection that you get: I meet Joe at church. Joe's connected to a whole network of people I don't know. Joe likes me. He invites me over to his son's birthday party, and I meet his whole family. I meet his friends. I get to know his neighborhood. That happens all the time.

  Michael Emerson

  Party, Son, People

  Source: www.pbs.org

  4 Copy quote

• There's always that sense of because we're so racially defined, if you're trying to cross the boundaries you don't fit into any particular space.

  Michael Emerson

  Space, Trying, Fit

  Source: www.pbs.org

  4 Copy quote

• We've done a lot of studies to see when they do happen, why, and I mean there's a variety of reasons. But one, it starts with a commitment where they decide this is going to be who we are. Maybe it's out of their faith, a new way of looking at their faith, that we must be integrated across race.

  Michael Emerson

  Mean, Commitment, Race

  Source: www.pbs.org

  7 Copy quote

• They could never go back to being a uniracial congregation again. It brings excitement. It brings life. It allows them to be able to know people they would never know, to meet people that are outside the congregation they would have never connected with, you know, through the networks that they developed in the congregation.

  Michael Emerson

  People, Able, Excitement

  Source: www.pbs.org

  7 Copy quote

• We go where our family goes. We go where our friends are, and because our social networks are so segregated by race, we end up with what we have. We also find that, you know, if you're immigrants, you're not part of that history.

  Michael Emerson

  Race, Social Network, Ends

  Source: www.pbs.org

  6 Copy quote

• We just say there are five, you know, racial groups in the US. I say that these folks are what we call a sixth American. There's something different. They are somebody who - they don't exist in any particular racial category, so they all feel it and they kind of congregate to each other.

  Michael Emerson

  Groups, Different, Kind

  Source: www.pbs.org

  4 Copy quote

• In part because they had no choice, right? If you were a slave, you did what the master said. And they said to worship: "You're going to worship with us."

  Michael Emerson

  Worship You, Choices, Slave

  Source: www.pbs.org

  7 Copy quote

• Downsides, yeah, and when there are more downsides when churches first start - they go through stages of transforming to becoming multiracial. So in the beginning stages there's often a lot of pain, a lot of confusion, a lot of people leave.

  Michael Emerson

  Pain, Confusion, People

  Source: www.pbs.org

  7 Copy quote

• I have to conclude, oh, the best people are all somebody other than my own race. So that's difficult. How do we interpret the Bible? Should we stress things like justice and that God is somebody who cares about equality of all people? Or is he a God of love and a God who's there to give me an afterlife?

  Michael Emerson

  Stress, Afterlife, Race

  Source: www.pbs.org

  7 Copy quote

• So you find a lot of these sixth Americans congregate in these interracial congregations. They hang out together at work, at school, wherever.

  Michael Emerson

  School, Together, Hanging Out

  Source: www.pbs.org

  4 Copy quote

• I think of myself as a problem-solver. I want to go in and help the director and the writer to get the best they can out of the text they're working with.

  Michael Emerson

  Thinking, Directors, Want

  "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. May 16, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

• One of the things I like about performing on the stage is that it is a kind of meditative experience. Time does stand still. You have no concept or feeling of the passing of two or three hours' time. It's all kind of one present moment, which is a kind of a description of meditation.

  Michael Emerson

  Two, Meditation, Feelings

  "Actor Michael Emerson". "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. May 16, 2012.

  6 Copy quote

• I may have to shop with them. But on Sunday I don't want to have to worship with them. I want to be able to just be myself and let my hair down." It's also, of course, as we know, the seat of political organization and the affirming of your blackness and so on.

  Michael Emerson

  Sunday, Hair, Organization

  Source: www.pbs.org

  4 Copy quote

• It may be changing, but still it's the one place, that total control of an institution, that African Americans have. So sometimes, you know, you'll hear the statement of African Americans saying, "I have to work with whites.

  Michael Emerson

  African American, May, Sometimes

  Source: www.pbs.org

  4 Copy quote

• Life will be simpler when I don't spend two-thirds of the year in the middle of the Pacific.

  Michael Emerson

  Years, Two, Middle

  Source: www.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

Page 1 of 4

← Prev

1

2

3

4

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin