Taraji P. Henson Quotes

It's up to you to be responsible for how you feel if you're not happy.

Your happiness lies in your hands. You can't rely on a man to make you happy or complete you. That starts with you.

I really wish Hollywood would stop labeling movies, especially movies with predominantly black casts. Then, it makes others feel like, "Oh, well, that's not for me." At the end of the day, everybody understands love, loss, pain and heartbreak. That's not a color.

There is always going to be love versus hate;

we struggle with that as humans within ourselves every day; as a society, we have to struggle. So when you wake up, you have to decide which side you're going to be on. Hopefully, that side is positive, so you do the work and hope that your legacy will help change things.

I feel like I'm already a winner. I've made so many dreams come true. I'm here. Whether you walk away with a statue [ Emmy]or not, you shouldn't make it about it that necessarily. Everyone who's here in this house tonight is a winner.

I like to be scared. I don't like feeling like "Oh, this is going to be a walk in the park". If I ever get to that place, I'll just stop acting.

My first big heartbreak proved to me that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

When I was growing up, no one ever said to me, "You cannot do math because you're a girl." But, there was an understanding growing up that math and science were for boys. Somebody lied to me because Katherine Johnson woman exists, all of these women existed.

I'm constantly proving myself. I have to always prove myself. There are roles where I feel like, "That should have been a straight offer. Why am I having to call my people and fight for it?"

So much could go wrong on a date. What if he turns out to be a jerk? [You need] A back-up plan, just in case he doesn't work out, you can move on to the back-up plan.

I'm pretty much the same. I'm consistent. There aren't two mes. There is only one me. I can only be myself, and that's who I always am whether I'm at home or on the carpet.

If I feel like I've reached this greatness in my career than there's no more room for growth. I don't think I'm ever going to get there. If I ever get complacent, it's time for me to bow out.

I'm really silly. That's the thing that people don't get. I think I'm a stronger comedic actress than I am a dramatic actress. I'm not really pigeonholed, but I'm known for drama. I do comedy so easily, and people relate to my humor. I'll be glad because I don't have to stay sexy and young forever. I don't care if I'm big, as long as I'm funny.

I like to be home with my son, kickin' it and watching ESPN, a very normal life.

I like to take him to school every day, watch his games.

When I come home, it's about my kid, who needs to eat, needs to do homework, and needs to get to basketball. I don't have a lot of time to think about me.

Katherine Johnson passion for math, the way I light up when I get asked questions about acting is the way her eyes danced when she talked about math and how she wanted people to fall in love with numbers the way that she did. If I had a teacher like that, I could have been a rocket scientist.

I don't think a living being should suffer for the sake of fashion, period.

End of story. You don't have to kill an animal just because you want to be hot and fly. And I really stand by that.

A lot of times characters are combinations of people I come across in life. I people-watch a lot.

On my iPad, and I'm quite a fool for this, but I use Post-It notes to cover up the camera. It's just weird with that little eye there and sometimes it'll be green and I know I didn't turn it on. It's very spooky.

Sometimes you have to say the words exactly how they are on the page, but sometimes when you improv, it only helps to get across what's on the page, and I just love working with directors who allow that.

If I were to meet the most incredible man, and he just so happened to not make as much money as I do, I wouldn't hold it against him.

I'm not a selfish actor. I believe that it's a team effort. You're not in a scene by yourself.

I don't ever want to get boxed in, playing the same characters, over and over again. That's why I prefer features over television.

I just hate when things get labeled as "black movies.

" I don't say, "Oh, this weekend, I want to see an all-white movie," or "I want to see a black movie." I just go to a movie because I saw the previews and I relate to it. I want to see it because the previews look interesting.

When I get that question, about diversity, I don't go, "Yeah, well you know they don't pay me." That's not my story. I own six properties; Hollywood has been damn good to me. Now you can ask me, "Have they paid you what you deserve?" That's the question, but you'd have to go to the studios, I don't know. I do the work!

When I go home to visit, they never treat me like a celebrity.

They still treat me like TJ. If I leave dishes in the sink, they'll let me know.

I would have to say movies are my favorite.

I love doing TV, too, but it's always rush, rush, rush. With a feature film, those moments and scenes get a chance to breathe, because you don't have to accomplish as much in one day.

Something happens to a woman when she can't reproduce.

I've not had to walk that path, but I can only imagine when your organs don't work and how that could make you feel.

In my mind I'm like, "No, Katherine Johnson it was you. It was your mind alone that got John Glenn to orbit the earth." He didn't say, "Go get so in so." He said, "Go get that smart girl." But that fact that that she sees the "we" in "I," blew me away.

Love is the greatest gift that God has given us. It's free.

Improvisation helps because you get what's on the page and you make it a little more palatable to your tongue. And that's the beauty of creating and being spontaneous. That's the way I love to work.

It's an important moment [win an Emmy]. I just feel like I want it to happen tonight, either for myself or Viola [Davis] so we can get past it, so it's not big news anymore. I mean, it is 2015. We have a black president.

I talked to Katherine Johnson, and I tried to make it weighty by asking things like, "How as a Black woman did you do your work in NASA? They were misogynistic, and I'm sure you got called the n-word." She was just like, "Well, that was the way it was. I just did my job. I wanted to do my job." She was just so humble.

You could be laughing one day about the same issues that you're crying about the next day, so that's life.

Date a woman with children only if you are ready to man up, because it's a position that comes with responsibility.

With camera phones and, you know, iPad's and cameras at stoplights, it's like I just want to drive around with a bag on my head because I just feel like everyone's watching.

I think I'm a better comedic actress than I am a dramatic actress, but everybody believes I'm this dramatic actress and I'll take it.

What gives me the greatest satisfaction is the number of people I can affect with my gift, with what I do. That's the most important thing to me, more important than any trophy or award.

I'm always talking to the writers because I find it so fascinating, how they're able to go to these different levels with the different stories, and have all these layers to peel back.

I love the art of acting, so I don't care if I'm in a movie with 10 people, two people, or by myself. I just really enjoy it.

When you are portraying a person that is very real, in my case, Katherine Johnson is still alive, she is 98-years old; there is a responsibility to get it right. I guess the biggest thing that I took away from Katherine was her humility. When you talk about superheroes there are selfless, they don't think about themselves, they put humanity first.