Jurnee Smollett Quotes

#1. There are so many people who will try and make you feel like your opinion doesn't matter, and I've learned how important it is to use your voice.

Jurnee Smollett

#2. I am oftentimes the ear for some people that I know and love. Which I like being. I don't know if I'd like being a marriage counselor, though, because that's too deep for me.

Jurnee Smollett

#3. I read slave narratives, books like Bullwhip Days, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. [The Root's chairman] Henry Louis Gates has an amazing documentary called Many Rivers to Cross - really, his whole writings; he's such a wealth of knowledge.

Jurnee Smollett

#4. Never let anyone silence your voice.

Jurnee Smollett

#5. I love music, and I love drumlines. I like school bands a lot. There's nothing wrong with cheerleading, but I'd rather be a band geek. It's a little more interesting.

Jurnee Smollett

#6. Corruption in education leads to some people getting highly educated and then these people support the uneducated to rule over the illiterate masses.

Amit Abraham

#7. My little brothers loved baseball. I'm not as big on that as basketball or football, but I understand the game.

Jurnee Smollett

#8. But really, for me, I tried to find first-person accounts. I tried to read stories from men and women who had survived slavery because it's different when you hear it from their mouths instead of reading it from a history book.

Jurnee Smollett

#9. I have so many passions outside of my passion for acting.

Jurnee Smollett

#10. If you feel like it's difficult to change, you will probably have a harder time succeeding.

Andrea Jung

#11. I tell my child, if I seem obsessed to always know where you've been, it is because my DNA will be found at the scene.

Robert Breault

#12. I don't really think about the critics or the commercial success.

Jurnee Smollett

#13. My best advice would be that you have to be vulnerable with each other. Like, everyone says you have to be honest, you have to communicate; like, yes, of course, but you gotta be willing to be vulnerable.

Jurnee Smollett

#14. As an artist, you want to stretch. That's the only way you're going to grow. If I stay inside my comfort zone, do roles that I've done before, then I'm never going to get better as an actress.

Jurnee Smollett

#15. I try to give each performance my own soul, to bring a truth to my character. Hopefully, when I bring that much truth to a character, it resonates with somebody, and it sparks some kind of emotion in them.

Jurnee Smollett

#16. When I was younger, I really struggled with confidence.

Jurnee Smollett

#17. You go through those awkward, dorky, geeky stages, and growing up in the industry amplifies all that. Fortunately, I have a mother who encouraged me to build my confidence from within and embrace my imperfections.

Jurnee Smollett

#18. Everyone has a past, but I try not to let that affect the way I see them; I want to get to know who they are today.

Jurnee Smollett

#19. I like sitting down and watching games.

Jurnee Smollett

#20. There's a level of shame attached to our history, and we need to replace that shame with pride and own our history. These are our superheroes. These are our people, and I would love to see us own this side of our history with pride.

Jurnee Smollett

#21. I come from a family of four brothers, so I like sports.

Jurnee Smollett

#22. I'm a grandma at heart.

Jurnee Smollett

#23. Vanessa Williams in person is like ... the camera cannot capture how gorgeous this woman is! She is just so breathtaking.

Jurnee Smollett

#24. I'm me, and what the hell can I do about it!
...
I, the solemn investigator of useless things...

Fernando Pessoa

#25. One of the most tragic things about slavery was the mental enslavement, the way they made us believe that we were worth nothing; and that's what she's fighting against.

Jurnee Smollett

#26. I just live my life. I go where I feel God is calling me.

Jurnee Smollett

#27. Dear reader, true religion is not gloomy.

Fanny Fern