Afeni Shakur Quotes

There has been a lot of self-doubt and unwelcome events in my life.

I've been lucky enough - well, maybe unlucky enough - to have had a lot of friends who have had their ups and downs. And for an actor, that's good. Life experience in any regard is good. So I've seen a lot and I've had my own experiences.

I know some people that have gone through serious struggles. People that were close to me, and I've seen some terrible things about people who lose it. So I think that type of pain is something that's human and that, actually, can help us look at ourselves a little bit.

There's a way of dealing with hardships that are healthier than going out. That's what I've learned.

I think I'm going to have to live vicariously through my daughter's rebellion because I certainly never did go through adolescence.

I think that clearly it has an influence, to be coming of age during the punk rock era, to come from a difficult and sporadically violent background, to have been in and out of such chaos, I think it actually helps. But I don't know for sure.

I'd say I'm drawn to characters that ring true to me. Adolescence is a troubled time for everyone, so a lot of those characters have been troubled, tortured people. It's been a great way to navigate my adolescence by having these more troubled kids as an outlet.

Therapy? I don't need that. The roles that I choose are my therapy.

There's been moments of depression in my life, moments when I was in situations that I thought I wouldn't be able to get out of.

Being 21 years old is not easy in the sense that you're still trying to get to know yourself.

I go to the theater because I need help dealing with my life; I want to see the greatest questions addressed. I need to see actors grappling with things that matter.

It was always going to be difficult, no matter what I'd set up, no matter how many children I have got to take my mind off things. There was always going to be a moment when I finished playing, that I was going to find tough.

There was a time when I stopped singing, between 16 and 19, but that was done on purpose, maybe as a punishment, maybe as a cure.

At some point, I kind of went through this weird existential crisis in high school where I was just really depressed.

I went through a tough time after leaving 'tennis.

My kids know they can't make the same mistakes I've made. They've been through a lot with me always being on the road.

Let me tell you, everyone has different experiences. I had a lot of things going on, and I am dealing with it in my own way.

There have been times when I have goofed up, and like every adolescent, I sometimes did get led the wrong way. I would come back home really scared to face my mom's wrath and anger, but surprisingly, I never got to face one. She would always tell me in a very nice manner that what I did was wrong and that I should correct myself.

It's not necessarily bad that you have angst or you have anger - it's what you do with it, how you interpret it into something profoundly moving.

I'd been drifting and in a very self-destructive bent ever since my mother died and as soon as I dealt with the grief, for the first time in 10 years, I had clarity and I realized: 'I need to make a movie, now, cause if I don't make it now, I might never do it.' That's what pushed me forward, and I immediately moved to Vancouver.

I've struggled more with guys, depression drugs, family and career than I ever have with my illness. I'm not an innocent and I'm not a child.

I didn't have a horrible life as a teenager but I was certainly depressed and had some pain in my life at that time. I've spent a lot of time thinking back on that time in my life. I think I am just fascinated by it.

My twenties were the worst period of my life.

We had nothing in hand and my father used to live on the street. The profession of acting happened to him when B.R. Chopra picked him up for a film, and my father acted just to earn money for survival.

What else have I done nearly all my life than go hungry and go on singing?