Jamila Woods Quotes

I think of myself as a healing artist.

Music was invented to confirm human loneliness.

I sing my life. It's like I'm having group therapy 350 days a year, and the people who come to the show get that, and they're there for that - whether it's to be lifted up, or to be lifted out, or just entertained or inspired, or to feel not so alone.

Art is for healing ourselves, and everybody needs their own personal art to heal up their problems.

When I am on a long run in a play, I'm not sure how I would fill the days if I did not paint or write. On a basic level, it just stops me going crazy.

What people don't realize is that everybody needs support, one way or another.

Therapy is therapy. Writing is for writing.

It sounds cheesy, but music has saved me in a lot of ways. If I had just continued acting, I don't think I would be alive.

Art was always for me an escape and a way to relate to the world around me.

If I hadn't had acting, I would probably have imploded.

I feel like my music at least allows me to release the other side of me, a more vulnerable and sensitive side.

You know early on when you're given a gift that can keep you sane. That's what acting does for me. It keeps me honest and keeps me sane.

I don't know what I would've done without it. I really struggled in school with reading and writing. Art was my refuge - my way of speaking, of dealing with my own issues and connecting with the world.

I feel like I've figured out the way that I can talk about things that are important to me and have my music and the way of performance be healing and be helpful.

If I hadn't had the outlet of writing and drawing comics, I guess there's a good chance I wouldn't be around today.

Everyone who comes to my show has their own struggles. There's so many people dealing with so many things; I love that I get to be part of their healing process by making them laugh.

I worry about everything in the world, and it's just too much for anybody to think about, so I have my art as my consolation.

I think everyone should definitely know they're not alone.

When I started writing poetry in my senior term of high school - I was sixteen - I felt in touch with a secret language. It gave me a sense of identity. I suddenly discovered I wasn't alone.

Photography has taken me from isolation.

I don't think of myself as making art. I do what I do because I want to, because painting is the best way I've found to get along with myself.

To share our stories is not only a worthwhile endeavor for the storyteller, but for those who hear our stories and feel less alone because of it.

If anyone would have been paying serious attention to my puppet shows, I would have been sent to therapy very young.

I love pouring my heart out. People don't want to hear you whine when you're with friends, so you can sing about it instead - it's the best outlet.

When I felt like an outsider, movies made me feel inside my own skill set.