Danielle Brooks Quotes

I love ‘Insecure.’ I want to play Issa Rae’s sister. I do know Issa Rae, but we ain’t besties or nothing.

I go by my own standards, and I will be the voice of the curves for the women that feel like they can’t stand up for themselves.

I’ve always said that actor years is like dog years: it feels like forever when you’re not working.

By no longer operating out of a place of fear. So if you see me on a carpet with my arms and legs out glistening, or my midriff exposed, it’s a reminder to myself and the world that I know I’m beautiful.

I don’t have to accept what you think I should look like and I do not accept what you think I should look like.

In Greenville, we were blessed to have lots of youth arts programs. I changed middle schools to go to an arts middle school. Then, when high school came, I went to normal high school for a little while before auditioning for the Governor’s School for Arts and Humanities.

Personally, I don’t want to live with limitations. If there comes a time where I am dying to play Juliet or Macbeth, I want to make those avenues for myself.

Because I’ve worked with Netflix from the beginning, and that’s my first job, I only want to work with creators, producers, and networks that are pushing the limit and putting people on the screen that haven’t had their stories told yet.

Designing wasn’t something that I was always into, but I wasn’t able to find clothes that I wanted to wear. I wanted to be able to walk into any store and have an idea of what I want and go and get it.

I don’t necessarily have one mentor or ‘a’ mentor. But I do pull inspiration from people, and that’s always kind of served me well.

I just want to be fully challenged as an artist, so that anyone who looks like me, who relates to me, says, ‘Oh, if Danielle did it, I can.’

I want to be in everything, but that’s because I haven’t seen someone who looks like me in everything. I want to play a superhero. I want to be the love interest. I want to write my own stuff and create my own projects. I want to be in French films.

I like to play people who are underdogs and misfits. People who are not on a straight and narrow path. That’s exciting for me.

Sometimes I need a slower pace, to slow my mind down and just be with nature, go outside.

In South Carolina, there’s a lot of arts programs. So I was blessed enough to go to the Governor School For Arts & Humanities.

Honestly, I haven’t always been into fashion because I wasn’t seeing myself reflected in the fashion industry … Clothes are such a big part of who we are, they really show our personalities. I wasn’t finding that.

I’m a country girl. We lived in a neighborhood, but at the back of the house, there was a little pathway with a creek and a trail. And we would go there, me and my brother. It was always an adventure in our imagination.

I feel that we all have missions and purposes in life. Part of mine is allowing women to feel beautiful in whatever they put on – or don’t put on.

I think theater and church are so relatable because it’s traditional call-and-response in the way that an audience interacts with the actors.

I went to Juilliard, for God’s sakes. I know a little something about combat.

I want to design clothes that I wish I could have worn when I was a teenager.

There are brands out there, plus-size brands, that all they want to do is sell their clothes and be done.

I was always getting caught for running my mouth. Which is why it was the best thing for me to get into acting so I could express myself.

It wasn’t until I saw ‘The Color Purple’ on Broadway when I was 15 that I really solidified acting is what I want to do professionally.

The sassy black woman who can land a good joke was sort of my go-to audition. Or playing a struggling mother.

My biggest thing is telling a truthful story, something that is rooted in something and is very honest. If I read a script and you want me to take off my top, and it doesn’t serve a purpose, then I’m not going to do it.

I’ve always known I wanted to be an actress. I didn’t know quite how I was going to get there because I come from a small town called Simpsonville, South Carolina.

My mother is a pastor. I think she has her moments where she’s like, ‘Dani, what are you getting into,’ but at the end of the day, she really supports me as an actor.

Don’t compare your career to anyone else’s. It’s tough when you’re in a business that’s competitive. I was having a difficult time with that in college. Now, I’m having to learn to be patient and be where I am.

Sometimes you have to sacrifice your pride to really go after what you want.