Phylicia Rashad's Quotes

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.

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.

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.

We are told there is not enough money for education, but somehow there is enough money for people to raise billions of dollars to defeat somebody in an election? Oh! Okay! Does that make sense?

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.

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.

What I love about being an actress is being able to really look into myself and understand another human being.

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 me just say that to imagine racism does not exist is imagination. And to imagine that it does not create its own set of problems is true imagination. So let's not imagine that racism is gone, extinguished, because it's not. We are seeing this in the top levels of the political arena, and we are seeing it very, very plainly.

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

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

As artists, we do the work that we do. Receiving an award or not receiving an award in no way diminishes one's talent or value.

I am having a good time doing nothing.

I love theater. To have the people onstage right there, to be working in concert with other artists, this is a like a school of fish moving together.

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

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?

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.

There was a time when I couldn't watch sitcoms for a while because it was just cacophony, it was just noise.

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.

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

Without an educated populace, democracy cannot sustain itself.

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.