Now, I am perfectly willing to just enjoy my career by choosing roles simply because I consider them to be a challenge and doing the best possible job I can.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes finding joy in one's work through challenges and personal effort.
Cicely Tyson expresses a philosophy of embracing one's career by selecting roles that present a challenge, suggesting that fulfillment comes not only from the roles themselves but also from the personal commitment to perform to the best of one's ability. This perspective highlights the importance of passion and effort in achieving a satisfying professional life, where success is measured by personal growth rather than external accolades.
In practice
During a motivational speech at a career fair, one might say, 'As Cicely Tyson remarked, enjoying challenges in your career leads to true success.'
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 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.
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
I wanted no part of politics. And I wasn't in Berlin to compete against any one athlete. The purpose of the Olympics, anyway, was to do your best. As I'd learned long ago from Charles Riley, the only victory that counts is the one over yourself.
There was no doubt about it: if you wanted to succeed you had to go away. You could do nothing in Dublin.
Personally, I experience success when I enjoy what I'm doing. I love the creative process, even if the end result isn't embraced by anyone else.
Listen, I wrote 10 unsuccessful books before I broke through, so I'm looking all the time to keep my books fascinating. I want to write what people want to read, not push any message.
Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.
Show me a guy who can't pitch inside and I'll show you a loser.
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