Viola Davis Quotes

I think you sort of shed skins as you go along in life. You get into your 40s, and you feel like, 'OK, no more pretending.' You get to just be who you are.

I gotta be who I am now. How do you not, right?

As a gymnast, I've always compartmentalized my life, which is a blessing and a curse. But over time, I've learned that my sport doesn't fully define me, and I think that's where a lot of the joy in my routines comes from now: I'm not compartmentalizing as much, and I know who I am beyond my sport.

I'm happy about who and what I am - and I can't wait to find out who I'll be tomorrow.

Becoming yourself is really hard and confusing, and it's a process. It's often not cool to be the person who puts themselves out there.

I'm finally just relaxed and comfortable with who I am.

I didn't start to work until I realized what it was I had to offer. I stopped imitating performers I admired and started just being myself.

The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.

The older you get, the more yourself you can be and the less worried you are about what other people think.

Like most people, I've grown a lot more sophisticated in my style choices. I know myself and what suits me better now than I did when I was much younger and feel more comfortable in my own skin.

As far as writing, it's grown because I've really grown comfortable with who I am.

On the first album I was saying, that's just one part of me. And then I was thinking, well, am I going to hide the rest of me now just because I'm afraid of something? No. I'm just going to be myself.

It only seems that there is something more important for you to do than to just quietly be yourself.

It's not hard to keep up the image we chose. It's not hard to stay yourselves.

The truth sets you free. It's a very liberating thing, when you say this is who I am warts and all and then you can just get on with life. It's amazing.

If I had to give one piece of advice to incoming college freshmen, I'd say always be true to yourself.

My hair was so much a part of my personality and all my photo shoots. I hid behind my hair. And then, I just decided I was okay with myself. To have short hair and really show my face is even more revealing than anything. It's a statement - not to everyone else, more to myself. I'm just ready to get out from behind my hair and be myself.

I want to stop transforming and just start being.

I wanted to become me, totally me. The more me, the better. I instinctively knew this and I was right.

I've fully embraced who I am. I stopped fighting with people and just come to realize, 'This is me. This is all of me.'

It just gets easier in that you become more you in the process.

I think it is such an amazing moment when people realize what they are and what they can be, and they start putting themselves out into the world. I think you can see it in people when it's happening. They look different.

The ideas I'm working with are ideas I'm committed to. I don't know how to soft-shoe them. I don't know how to make them more palpable. I just never knew how to be one of those girls. I wish I knew how to be that sometimes, but I don't know how to be that way.

I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier.

I want to be more myself. Sometimes it takes awhile to find your voice.