Quotes by Cicely Tyson

About Cicely Tyson:

Cicely L. Tyson is an American actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and the Golden Globe Award for her performance as Rebecca Morgan in Sounder (1972). For this role she also won the NSFC Best Actress and NBR Best Actress Awards. She starred in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974), for which she won two Emmy Awards and was nominated for a BAFTA Award.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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 focus...

Cicely Tyson

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

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

One lady told me that before she saw 'Sounder' she didn't believe black people could love each other, have deep relationships in the same way as white people.

Cicely Tyson

Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew.

Cicely Tyson

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

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

Ali... we should have gone to see that movie. Malcolm X was another one.

Cicely Tyson

We have to support our own films. If we don't, how can we expect others to support them?

Cicely Tyson

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

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

My mother was an introvert and quite religious. And we were brought up in the church. And when she learned that I wanted to act, she simply said: 'You cannot live here and do that.'

Cicely Tyson

You never know what motivates you.

Cicely Tyson

Author Bio

  • NameCicely Tyson
  • DescriptionAmerican actress
  • BornDecember 19, 1933
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionActor
  • AwardsSpingarn Medal