Phylicia Rashad

Phylicia Rashad: There's always something to suggest that you'll never be who you wanted to be. Your choice is to take it or keep on moving.

Phylicia Rashad: Well, she's very different from me; beating up one's children is something we definitely do not have in common. The funny thing is, my mother always says that I'm playing her. Let's see what she says after seeing this

Phylicia Rashad: I don't choose to take a role to prove to someone what I can do. It's an August Wilson play. I met with the playwright, I read for the playwright. In my career, that's like meeting Bill Cosby — meeting him is enough for me

Phylicia Rashad: He conveys the poetry, the natural rhythms, of his characters' speech. Everything - emotion, movement, thought, intention - is inherent in that rhythm. Actors sometimes like to dissect, to analyze, to do all those things actors are taught to do. But those things don't put me closer to this work's heart. I have to surrender all that. It's like going to a lake or a swimming pool. You just have to dive in, to immerse yourself. Working in his plays requires a different kind of skill. It's as if you would become a talking drum

Phylicia Rashad: What he showed me was not what I had to get, but what I already have. I am just myself, and who I am is a lot.

Phylicia Rashad: The stubbornness I had as a child has been transmitted into perseverance. I can let go but I don't give up. I don't beat myself up about negative things.