1. Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew.
Cicely Tyson
2. My gratification in working comes from the preparation and the building of the character.
Cicely Tyson
3. Age is just a number. Life and aging are the greatest gifts that we could possibly ever have.
Cicely Tyson
4. You never know what motivates you.
Cicely Tyson
5. Ali… we should have gone to see that movie. Malcolm X was another one.
Cicely Tyson
6. I am not a quitter. I will fight until I drop. It is just a matter of having some faith in the fact that as long as you are able to draw breath in the universe, you have a chance.
Cicely Tyson
7.Whatever good I have accomplished as an actress I believe came in direct proportion to my efforts to portray Black women who have made positive contributions to my heritage.
Cicely Tyson
8. We have to support our own films. If we don’t, how can we expect others to support them?
Cicely Tyson
09. The moment anyone tries to demean or degrade you in any way, you have to know how great you are. Nobody would bother to beat you down if you were not a threat.
Cicely Tyson
10.If each person in this world will simply take a small piece of this huge thing, this amazing quilt, and work it regardless of the color of the yarn, we will have harmony on this planet.
Cicely Tyson
11. I think when you begin to think of yourself as having achieved something, then there’s nothing left for you to work towards. I want to believe that there is a mountain so high that I will spend my entire life striving to reach the top of it.
Cicely Tyson
12. 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.
Cicely Tyson
13. When I told my mother that I wanted to be an actress, she said, you can’t live here and do that, and so I moved out. I was determined to prove her wrong because she was so sure that I was going to go astray. And that’s the juice that kept me going
Cicely Tyson
14. All I have to do is find someone who has something to say that will enrich my life and they can’t get rid of me.
Cicely Tyson
15. I will lead my people out of bondage, Lord.
Cicely Tyson
16. I don’t condemn anyone for making their choices. If someone chooses those roles, fine. But not for me. When someone stops me and says, You’re the reason I became an actress, that lets me know I made the right decision
Cicely Tyson
17. Children should have a balanced start in life: a mother and a father. I think that’s the only reason to get married.
Cicely Tyson
18. 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
Cicely Tyson
19. I was in California when this journalist made a blanket statement about the fact that she did not think that black men and women had the kind of love relationship that Rebecca and Nathan had in Sounder.
Cicely Tyson
20. I am the character, until I go home.
Cicely Tyson
21. In my early years, there were a number of experiences that made me decide I could not afford the luxury of just being an actress. There were a number of issues I wanted to address. And I wanted to use my career as a platform.
Cicely Tyson
22. 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.
Cicely Tyson
23. I have learned not to allow rejection to move me.
Cicely Tyson
24. 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.
Cicely Tyson
25. The choices of roles I made had to do with educating and entertaining. And as a result I found myself working only every two or three years.
Cicely Tyson
26. I’m a firm believer in divine guidance.
Cicely Tyson
27. I am the sum total of each one of the women I have played.
Cicely Tyson