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
The secret of success lies not in doing your own work, but in recognizing the right man to do it.
To double your net worth, double your self-worth. Because you will never exceed the height of your self-image.
Those who are victorious plan effectively and change decisively. They are like a great river that maintains its course but adjusts its flow...they have form but are formless. They are skilled in both planning and adapting and need not fear the result of a thousand battles: for they win in advance, defeating those that have already lost.
There's this little box that African-American actors have to work in, in the first place, and I was able to rise above that box. I could have done a bunch of movies where I stayed as the Axel Foley or Reggie Hammond persona. But I didn't want to be doing the same thing all the time. Every now and then, you crash and burn, but that's part of it.
See the clock only when you have No work.... Don't see the clock when you are working.... Clock is a lock for success
You don't need an introduction to succeed in life. You need to have good work. Work hard. Believe in yourself
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