Phylicia Rashad Quotes

A person can be big, because of spirit. A person can be big because of their position in the family, the hierarchy in the family. That role has been played by women who are quite thin.

Where the women go, the culture goes.

Let's just say that the theater is not for the faint of heart.

If the playwright knew every little thing about his play, why bother? There must be discovery all the time, otherwise why bother to do it?

I think the real understanding comes when we recognize our humanity in each other. That's not just between blacks and whites. That's between all religions as well.

There's always something to suggest that you'll never be who you wanted to be. Your choice is to take it or keep on moving.

If there are no films or plays of interest to me, I don't go. I know how to go to a museum or a library or pick up a good magazine or I can watch the sun set. I know how to live. There's a whole creation out there full of magic and wonder to be explored.

How is it that you profess love for God but can't accept another human being?

Let me just say that to imagine racism does not exist is imagination. And to imagine that it does not create its own set of problems is true imagination. So let's not imagine that racism is gone, extinguished, because it's not. We are seeing this in the top levels of the political arena, and we are seeing it very, very plainly.

Historically, if you look at great civilizations, why do they crumble? Is it because of what's outside or because of something internal? It's always internal. It is.

Any time women come together with a collective intention, it's a powerful thing. Whether it's sitting down making a quilt, in a kitchen preparing a meal, in a club reading the same book, or around the table playing cards, or planning a birthday party, when women come together with a collective intention, magic happens.

I am just myself, and who I am is a lot ...

Things have a way of moving to the left, and then they move back to the right before somebody finds themselves in the center. That seems to be the nature of the creative world. It's not stagnant. I don't get upset about it.

If I had known being insane was so much fun, I'd have gone crazy long ago.

What's in front of you is a whole world of experiences beyond your imagination. Put yourself, and your growth and development, first.

As artists, we do the work that we do. Receiving an award or not receiving an award in no way diminishes one's talent or value.

When I am presented with good work, I accept it. Wherever it is.

There was a time when I couldn't watch sitcoms for a while because it was just cacophony, it was just noise.

I am having a good time doing nothing.

What he showed me was not what I had to get, but what I already have. I am just myself, and who I am is a lot.

When you're free from the idea of doership then something else within you emerges. It is yourself.

There's all kinds of mothers, so to use the label 'mother' and to think you really understood all that a human being is because she's a mother, is a mistake.

Every role affords me something different in the way of understanding, and that's really why you take these roles, not to show that thing that people talk about of showing what you can do - that has nothing to do with anything.

Acting's not about nose jobs and liposuction. It's about being truthful to what you're doing.