I love Viola Davis.

Bill Viola is worth ten Scorseses.

Viola Davis should be a household name. So should Angela Bassett.

The difference between a violin and a viola is that a viola burns longer.

It was never easy being Cicely Tyson. And it will not be easy being Octavia or Viola Davis.

I was working with the likes of Steve McQueen, Matthew McConaughey, Viola Davis, just running the gamut.

Viola Davis, she does have a lot of TV acting jobs, and she's also a very, very accomplished stage actress.

Viola Davis is a perfect example of somebody who's so much better than the parts she has the opportunity to play.

II know very, very little about the ukulele, but I actually grew up playing the viola from 4th grade through high school.

I did 'Fences' off-broadway at the Beacon Theater, so it's amazing that Denzel Washington and Viola Davis brought it to Broadway.

The first time I mentioned publicly that I had known Viola for some time, many people took it like Viola got me the job in 'Fences'.

I loved doing Shakespeare. My two favorite roles, in fact, have been Viola in Twelfth Night and Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I have a girl crush on Olivia Munn so much, especially on 'Newsroom.' And Cara Delevingne, but who doesn't love her face? Viola Davis is my acting crush.

Viola Davis is just one of those actors who is never bad in anything. She could be in an awful film but you'd never come away from it saying she was bad.

I saw 'The Help' on DVD. I was blown away by Viola Davis: she really straddled that fine line in the plot between what was tragic and what was heart-warming.

I remember once, when I started writing for the alto saxophone, a saxophonist told me to think of it as being like a cross between an oboe and a viola, but louder.

Viola? Keep calling for me– And I’ll keep searching for you– And I’ll find you– You bet yer life on it– I’ll find you– Keep calling for me, Viola– Cuz here I come.

Viola Davis is incredible - she's kind of the biggest career-wise inspiration for me. Brilliant actor, so intelligent, so strong. The path that she's made is incredible.

When I was very young I was never pretty or beautiful and didn't get the chance to play many parts I'd have loved to tackle: the great Shakespearean parts - Viola, Helena.

After making my stage debut aged nine as Macduff's small son in 'Macbeth,' I had played a number of parts, from 'Twelfth Night's Viola to 'The Merchant Of Venice's Portia'.

I started off in drama, and there are so many women that I admire. Women in this industry are gladiators. Cicely Tyson, Viola Davis, Taraji Henson, Regina Hall, Regina King.

The Third Quartet I made the instruments in pairs - Two different pairs - Violin and viola, and violin and cello. They played very different things from each other all through the whole piece.

I'm old enough to have lived through a time when Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers, Viola Liuzzo, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and others died so people of color could vote.

It can be very thrilling being able to witness Viola Davis do her thing for hours and hours, but there are also no windows, and you're just in a room for fourteen hours trying to keep it together.

Viola Davis, Patti Smith, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Julianne Moore. I could go on forever listing names. However... my greatest inspirations have, without a doubt, been my teachers, friends, and family.

I carry around a black leather Moleskine journal all the time. And I always write ideas down, especially when I'm on set and working with actors like Jeremy Irons and Viola Davis and learning from them.

We did a lot of high school productions. My first was 'Twelfth Night.' I played Viola. We did 'Much Ado About Nothing' and 'Taming of the Shrew,' and a lot of musicals: 'The Wiz,' 'Bye Bye Birdie,' 'Oliver.'

I can speak of actors that I love. I love Cate Blanchett, Viola Davis, her tenacity. I love Charlize Theron. She's so surprising and so exhilarating, the kinds of projects she takes on. Marion Cotillard as well.

I've been playing the viola since I was 6 years old, and then I decided to switch it up a bit, so I've been playing the violin since I was 11. I started playing the piano when I was 11, and I started playing the guitar when I was 10.

I would absolutely love to do something with Viola Davis or Meryl Streep. I just think both of those women fall so deep into their characters that you are no longer looking at the actresses, you are looking at the characters they embraced.

I liked 'The Help,' and I love Viola Davis. But I didn't think that film was a great film; I thought that was a very uneven film. I thought the Southern women were so caricatured that it was kind of like 'Harper Valley PTA' or something like that.

Having brought diversity to the air in the way that we have with Kerry Washington and Viola Davis toplining their shows, and then shows like 'Fresh Off the Boat' and 'Black-ish,' have been very important. I look forward to continuing in that vein.

I love Viola Davis. I call her 'Queen.' I think she's phenomenal. She's so raw and so bold. When I first saw her was in 'Doubt,' and she just changed everything for me. Her performance was unlike anything I had ever seen before, and I think she's phenomenal.

I didn't tell my kids, 'You have to play viola, and you have to play piano.' They chose these things on their own, and I don't think we have to give kids every choice, but we do have to give them some choice because that autonomy is crucial for fostering passion.

I always felt that, when I saw Denzel or Viola do scenes in their past films or past projects, that if it's a heavy scene, and it's requiring a lot of emotional weight, that we would have nothing but silence and incense burning in between takes just to keep things quiet.

I don't just want to be a cute girl in a comedy or the actress who just does the same thing over and over again. I want to play roles that are distinct. I want to have a more varied career like actresses Viola Davis or Angela Bassett - those are the people that I grew up watching and admiring.

I just think that you have to believe in yourself and you have to work very hard. You can't ever think that you're the best thing since sliced bread because I promise you, there are going to be Viola Davises and Jessica Chastains and Emma Stones who are the best thing since sliced bread. So take it seriously, but don't take it too seriously.

I was raised by my great-great aunt. I was adopted within our family. My mother had me when she was, I think, 15, 16. They tried to get her to have an abortion and she refused. So, my 'mama' adopted me, which was really her great aunt, which was really my great-great aunt, who was named Viola Dickerson. I was told that my mother was my sister.

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