Viola Davis

“Because we have to talk about it – that’s why. And why not?”

“I try not to fast-forward,”

“I carry a story within myself… I absolutely love stories. That’s a place of connection.”

“I think actors are storytellers, I think people are storytellers,”

“That’s a question that can bring out some great storytelling; it could probably even agitate some great emotions,”

“I’m a screamer, even at soccer games,”

“But with ‘Judge Stone,’ it’s like running in a field of cherry blossoms and daisies and just letting your imagination rip and roar.”

“I wanted it to be grounded in some level of truth as much as I can muster.”

“The foundation of it made for a great thriller, but it wasn’t as character-driven. That’s when I felt like my gifts could be useful,”

“That line is constantly playing out in my mind,”

“When I was 9, I said, ‘I’m going to be a writer,’ and I wanted to be a crime writer,”

“It’s extremely exciting what he’s going to become. Now he’s getting into directing. and he is going to bring African American filmmaking into a beautiful place.”

“And people responded to my writing, especially my fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Cody. Whenever someone notices you’re really good at something, it becomes a portal.”

“Me and my husband [actor and producer Julius Tennon] have been laughing for two days,”

“And so, you write, and you write, and you write, and you write. And somewhere in there, something clicks.”

“I wanted to be a writer when I was nine years old; it was my fantasy,”

“Oh man, we ate the hell out of that chocolate, let me tell you!”

“And guess who never walks a dog now? I mean, she does walk the dog, but you know how kids are.”

“I just like to be regular. I don't want to put on makeup. I don't want to try to be anyone else, other than myself.”

“I don't know why, maybe because I loved the Bobbsey Twins books. I was like, 'Oh. I could make a life of that.'”

“I can do the best I can with Tennessee Williams, but he writes for fragile white women,”

“It’s technical training to deal with the classics,”

“Beautiful work. But it’s not me.”

“I totally understand that. But what it denies is the human being behind all of that.”

“All those white actors have to do is play all white characters. That’s not me,”

“So then I’m caught in a quagmire. This sort of in-between place of not understanding how to use myself as the canvas.”

“Juilliard was an out-of-body experience, because, once again, I did not think that I could use me. Me needed to be left at the front door, even though me was what got me in there.”

“I mean, I don't have anything to do with how people see me, but when I come on a set, I see them as peers,”

“I'll tell you how I deal with that: I don't deal with that. I don't feel like I'm the greatest of all time,”

“I was curious and that's how I started my journey.”

“but not necessarily a better actor. She explained that the formal technical training she received helped her play classic roles from Shakespeare, Chekhov, O'Neill, and Strindberg, but added”