Phylicia Rashad Quotes

I don't really have a preferred genre. It's more up to the individual project itself and if I feel compelled by it.

I take the responsibility of choosing seriously because it becomes an indelible part of your body of work. Something has to sing to me.

I'd love to say I made the smart decision of picking projects that became hits, but with 'The Good Wife,' I read the script and something inside me said, 'I love this, I want to do this.'

I consider those actors who amaze me are somehow less attractive to me than those actors who move me.

Music is feeling. You can try to verbalize it. It really just hits you or it doesn't.

If the picture speaks to me, if it tells me something about myself, then I want it. Then I have to have it.

As a consumer, I don't create art, but I think whatever the message is, art has to touch you.

It's not about choosing a specific genre; that's not how I go about deciding what movies to make.

I guess I gravitate towards stories that I like and directors that I want to work with, and I hope that it works out.

My approach to selecting a film is very simple - it should touch my heart.

The reason we fall in love with certain music and writing is we connect with it on a very personal level.

I don't know if it's art, but I know I like it.

I've turned down good directors before because I knew the part didn't speak to me and I've worked with less talented directors before because the part I had such passion for.

What's hard to do is describe why you like something. Because ultimately, the reason things move people is very amorphous. You can be cerebral about things you hate, but most of the things you like tend to be very emotive.

In the finished article, the only thing that is important is whether it moves you or not. There is nothing else that is important at all.

There's no book or play or series or anything that speaks to everyone, because then it wouldn't speak to anyone.

When I listen to a symphony I love, I don't get from it what the composer got. His 'Yes' was different from mine. He could have no concern for mine and no exact conception of it. That answer is too personal to each man. But in giving himself what he wanted, he gave me a great experience.

I don't think there is anybody who's watching television right now who wants to see something because it looks good rather than feel something because it feels right or familiar or new or whatever.

There's no right way. There's no measurement system. That's why, you know, art competitions are a little confusing to me. I mean, they're lovely, but so many people are affected by different people and different things in such different ways. And yeah, it's immeasurable.

The first impression of a work of art is its otherness from reality.

My art, what do you want to say about it? Do you think you can explain the merits of a picture to those who do not see them? . . . I can find the best and clearest words to explain my meaning, and I have spoken to the most intelligent people about art, and they have not understood; but among people who understand, words are not necessary, you say humph, he, ha and everything has been said.

It's so much more fun to do the work than to talk about it. I will have to admit that. Everybody gets to decide how they feel, and what to take away by themselves, and that's what you hope for. That people will take away different things and have different experiences from the work we do as actors. So I don't like to prescribe how to feel about the work I do.

The human being receives the pleasure from music, not from the argument over what it is.

I'm still very affected and moved by their music - maybe in a way that's different from someone who grew up around it.

I mean, in many ways, you know, I felt very connected to Ian (Dury) on, on a lot of levels. I mean, politically, & sort of, socially, our, kind of, social backgrounds are quite similar in many ways, as well as our kind of artistic endeavors. So there were many, many things that sort of chimed in for me, and kind of made me feel very instinctive about playing him, and, and although, there was sort of a certain amount of impression involved, actually, there's a lot of myself in the role.