The more I'm pushed in a position of leadership and I know I have to be the mouthpiece for so many other people who can't speak for themselves, the more confidence I'm gaining.
I look back on those early days in the theater like the beginning of a love affair, when you're totally in love with the work, and that's all there is.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the passionate and transformative experience of engaging with oneβs artistic work, much like the excitement of falling in love.
Viola Davis compares her early days in theater to the thrilling beginnings of a romantic relationship, emphasizing the deep affection and commitment she felt towards her craft. This analogy highlights how the initial experiences of creativity can evoke powerful emotions, making the artistic journey feel like a passionate love affair, where the work itself becomes a central part of one's life and identity.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech at a theater awards ceremony, one might say, 'I look back on those early days in the theater like the beginning of a love affair, a time when passion for our craft knew no limits.'
More from Viola Davis
All quotes βWhat excites me is just taking some time to breathe in life. The mundane is very exciting.
I don't care if someone is new to acting or experienced in acting: you always learn something from them. It's just like people in life - whether they're young or middle-aged or old, you always learn something from someone.
I don't see a lot of narratives written where a woman who looks like me gets to be beautiful and sexualized and upwardly mobile, middle-class, funny, quirky. They're very seldom written.
And that's what people want to see when they go to the theater. I believe at the end of the day, they want to see themselves - parts of their lives they can recognize. And I feel if I can achieve that, it's pretty spectacular.
There's no prerequisites to worthiness. You're born worthy, and I think that's a message a lot of women need to hear.
Similar quotes
It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.
This is the beauty I want. Beauty has got to be astonishing, astounding-- it's got to burst in on you like a dream, like the exquisite eyes of a girl.
Composers and musicians have always starved and, as this is a sentimental country, we think the tradition should be continued.
When something in art or music piques my interest, I tend to go check it out, and most things I check out, I'm not very good at. But a few things I've gone to check out have given me back as much love as I gave them, usually much more.
All women's dresses, in every age and country, are merely variations on the eternal struggle between the admitted desire to dress and the unadmitted desire to undress.
Above all, a well-imagined story is organized around extraordinary human behaviors and unexpected and startling events, which help illuminate the commonplace and the ordinary.