Quotes from Samira Wiley

I was a good bartender. I wouldn't say I was the best bartender in New York, but I could hold my own.

It is television; we're making television at the end of the day. It's all smoke and mirrors, and it's all fake, but it's not, because it makes people really feel things that are real.

I want to make sure that any young person or anyone, really, who is looking up to me - who sees a glimpse of who I am as a person - that they see no shame, that they see pride, and that I'm truly unabashed about the person that I am.

I come from a theater background, and if you're doing a play, your audience is right there, and you're able to have that one-on-one experience. Doing more TV now, when fans come up to me on the street and talk to me on social media, that's a way to bridge that gap.

I never want to pigeonhole myself or get typecast. I'm looking forward to my career and showing all of my range as an actress, and I'm looking at other mediums, too. I'm a theater actress first. And I cannot wait to return to the stage.

I really want to play a superhero. I want to take the role-model thing up a notch. I've always been a fan of movies and TV, and to be able to play the ultimate TV superhero would be awesome.

I'd never played a character as long as I played Poussey. Spending time with her, so much time embodying that character, it was so - and still is and always will be - so special to me and a part of who I am.

We can climb mountains with self-love.

I've seen my parents dragged through the mud. But I wouldn't be the person I am today without them.

There's a play that Chekhov wrote called 'Uncle Vanya,' and I when I was in school, I played Sonya, and sometimes people ask me if there was ever a role I could play again, that's definitely the role I would play again: Sonya in 'Uncle Vanya.'

I'm very unpopular for my dislike of this food, but I've never liked avocado. Everyone gives me so much flack for it because they tell me how healthy it is for me, how delicious it is. I don't like it, but it's not for lack of trying. I tried to like it, and it's just not my thing.

I think of the prisoners on 'Orange Is the New Black,' a lot of times, as uplifting.

I think that all stereotypes sort of begin with truth. I think that the only problem is if that's the only place that you go.

Poussey is a really huge part of 'Orange,' and I'm sure her name will always echo through the halls of Litchfield, dead or alive.

'Orange Is the New Black' was my home show. I knew the set; I knew everyone there.

I didn't do 'Orange' because I knew it was good. I wanted to do this because it feels good. And I just knew that was the place I needed, wanted to be.

Before Juilliard, I was a schoolteacher for a little bit. I taught in a charter school. I was a substitute teacher for kids ages 3 to 6.

It's one thing to live my own life and know that I'm O.K. But there's another thing I want to take on, and that is letting people know that they're O.K., too.