Quotes from Viola Davis

He is a regular guy who absolutely is not attracted to his own celebrity. He's a jokester, a little rough around the edges, with great heart and compassion; he loves his family. I feel very comfortable with him. I don't see 'Denzel Washington Star'; I just see Denzel.

I'm in the business of creating human beings.

Self-deprecation is not the answer to humility.

Sometimes you see how humanity can rise above any kind of cultural ills and hate that a person's capacity to love and communicate and forgive can be bigger than anything else.

I would love to be remembered as a person who used her life to inspire others in any way, shape or form.

They say, 'To serve is to love,' and I think to serve is to heal, too.

I love Wal-Mart. You can put that down. I love Wal-Mart. My husband and I hang out there.

There's no prerequisites to worthiness. You're born worthy, and I think that's a message a lot of women need to hear.

August Wilson is the one writer that writes about men like my father, who had a fifth grade education, who was a janitor at McDonald's.

I would love to star in a remake of Thelma and Louise. Yep, that's the one I'd be interested in redoing.

I can't deal with actors! I can't deal with myself. We're neurotic and miserable... I love doing what I'm doing, but while I'm doing it, I'm miserable.

When a character has so many secrets and so much inner life, it's a joy to play those characters because you can use your craft.

I would love to do really great work and for women who are marginalised to see me as an inspiration.

Those things that we probably are ashamed of as human beings, certain things that no one would ever talk about - as actors, when we transform into a character, we empathize with those moments.

Every job I've ever gotten has transformed me in some way as an actor.

When people come into the theater, whether it's the screen or the stage, they've gotta be transported and transformed.

You absolutely feel, as a black actress, that you've got to ride the wave because there's just so few roles. I hate to play that card, but it's the truth. There's not a lot of roles.

I always talk to all the crew. I always make it pleasant. I always nurture a relationship that makes people feel like they're important, like they're a part of the collaboration. I feel that way about the young actors on set. I don't talk to them like I'm the mentor; I talk to them like they're my peers. And I learned that from Meryl Streep.

We grew up in abject poverty. Acting, writing scripts and skits were a way of escaping our environment at a very young age.

It became motivation as opposed to something else - the thing about poverty is that it starts affecting your mind and your spirit because people don't see you. I chose from a very young age that I didn't want that for my life. And it very much has helped me appreciate and value the things that are in my life now because I never had it.

I feel that confidence in women - especially young girls of color - but women, in general, is so important. It is so important for us to arm ourselves and become powerful at a very young age.

What it meant for me to win the Emmy is I found it. It's not just the award. It's what it's going to mean to young girls - young brown girls, especially. When they saw a physical manifestation of a dream, I felt like I had fulfilled a purpose.

The big 'Aha!' moment is that the trauma never goes away.

I just look at women sometimes and I just want to ask them, "Do you know how fabulous you are?"