Jurnee Smollett Quotations

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.