I have girlfriends in this business who talk about their personal lives, and it works for them, and I love it. But not for me. – Kerry Washington
I think as a whole America is dealing with the issue of homophobia. We got to be really honest about whether we believe in civil rights for all people or not. As Black people we need to remember the moment that we say it’s okay to disenfranchise one segment of society, we’re opening the door to move backward on ourselves. – Kerry Washington
When I think about any of the missteps in my life that I’ve made, all of which I’m grateful for, it’s because I just so wanted to be truly seen and heard for who I am and was afraid I wasn’t or wouldn’t be. – Kerry Washington
Every actor you work with has a different method, same with the director. You have to figure out what your shared language is and how to best support each other, and also take care of yourself. – Kerry Washington
I think generalizations of any sort are dangerous. I’ll say, if that is the case – right now it’s an American issue. – Kerry Washington
I have to take care of myself in order to live life the way I want to. It’s important to have rest days. But in the long run, if I don’t work out for, like, three days, I feel worse, not better. – Kerry Washington
The breakdown of the black community, in order to maintain slavery, began with the breakdown of the black family. Men and women were not legally allowed to get married because you couldn’t have that kind of love. It might get in the way of the economics of slavery. Your children could be taken from you and literally sold down the river. – Kerry Washington
I’ve never been comfortable being a pawn. I work with brands where I feel like I can have my say and companies that I’m proud to be in a relationship with. Partnerships take a lot of time. If I am going to put my name and my face and my energy behind something, I want it to be authentic. – Kerry Washington
You know what’s funny is that I have this ongoing relationship with the city of Washington D.C. I went to George Washington University, and my nickname was K-Dub – based on G-Dub – and I’m now on the board of trustees at George Washington University. – Kerry Washington
I feel like any single woman of color who’s been onstage has a Shakespeare monologue in her back pocket, and a monologue from ‘For Colored Girls.’ It’s just part of what you should have, as a woman of color. – Kerry Washington
Making the unbelievable believable is different on a set with ‘Fantastic Four,’ where it’s like, ‘Wind machines! Because the airship is coming in and you’re pretending to be afraid!’ – Kerry Washington
I didn’t grow up thinking I was pretty; there was always a prettier girl than me. So I learned to be smart and tried to be funny and develop the inside of me, because I felt like that’s what I had. – Kerry Washington
I’ve always been a writer because I’ve always been a student. My mom’s a retired professor, so I come from a very academic background. I love writing, you know? – Kerry Washington
There are a lot of forms of exercise where you have to leave yourself out of the room while you force yourself to do this thing. With Pilates, I get to bring my true self. I cry, I laugh. I get to go, ‘Where is my body today? What do I need today? How can I take care of myself and push myself past my comfort zone?’ – Kerry Washington
I’m a person who’s always been politically active and passionate about people’s rights. – Kerry Washington
I don’t think I’m even close to fulfilling my potential. And I think also that, unlike a pianist or a flutist, an actor has an instrument that is constantly changing. – Kerry Washington
I think sometimes in life we want to ignore the problems of society and just think about the good. I believe in positive thinking and affirmative living, I also think it’s really important to remember all of our disenfranchised members of society. – Kerry Washington
I always prided myself on the fact that I could live out of milk crates forever. It was kind of my way of detaching from materialism. – Kerry Washington
I am co-writing a screenplay now and I’m working on the rights to another story I want to do. So I plan to produce and direct. So, for me, I don’t really feel that I am vulnerable to that sad baggage that comes with the business of filmmaking. – Kerry Washington
People don’t think about the fact that when Barack Obama’s parents had him – it was illegal for them to be married in several states in this country. So if we start making it okay that certain people can marry and other people can’t, it’s a slippery slope of civil rights. Who knows who is going to be allowed to marry or not marry next. – Kerry Washington
I really love research. It’s one of the things I love most about my job. I feel like it’s me in the lab cooking up the character. – Kerry Washington
When I read ‘Ray’ for the first time, I had just quit. When I read ‘The Last King of Scotland,’ I had just quit. I hadn’t quite quit when I read ‘Scandal,’ but I was feeling really unfulfilled as an actor. – Kerry Washington
Today there are people trying to take away rights that our mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers fought for: our right to vote, our right to choose, affordable quality education, equal pay, access to health care. We the people can’t let that happen. – Kerry Washington
So many struggled so that all of us could have a voice in this great democracy and live up to the first three words of our constitution: We the people. I love that phrase so much. Throughout our country’s history, we’ve expanded the meaning of that phrase to include more and more of us. That’s what it means to move forward. – Kerry Washington
I grew up in New York, so I fell in love with acting on a stage, not in front of a camera. – Kerry Washington
You see the transformation that the arts have on young people. It changes their lives for the better. That’s where my engagement is. – Kerry Washington
I come from the theater and I plan to always do theater. So I don’t really see myself not being able to act even if people don’t think I am sexy enough for film at 40, I’ll still be acting. – Kerry Washington
About a year ago I got really exhausted from reading bad scripts and I know that I am a writer and that I have stories to tell, so I thought, ‘Let’s do this!’ So I’m co-writing a screenplay now with another screenwriter and loving it. Absolutely loving it. And I would like to be the producer on the project and of course the lead is me. – Kerry Washington
