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?
We will stomp to the top with the wind in our teeth.
Be bold. If you're going to make an error, make a doozy, and don't be afraid to hit the ball.
Don't be content with doing only your duty. Do more than your duty. It's the horse that finishes a neck ahead that wins the race.
Getting picked is fine if it happens to you. But it's not a plan. It's a version of waiting and hoping.
My passions, concentrated on a single point, resemble the rays of a sun assembled by a magnifying glass: they immediately set fire to whatever object they find in their way.
Your work is to keep cranking the flywheel that turns the gears that spin the belt in the engine of belief that keeps you and your desk in midair.
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