VOGUE: On Getting a Big Break as a Woman of Color:
“That really is our plight, especially as women of color. You can have all the training in the world, come from a respectable background and yet never get that big opportunity that breaks you out—never.”

“I am doing this out of necessity. If I am not the instrument of change, I can meander through this business and be the black woman who always has two or three scenes but with fabulous actors around me.”

VOGUE: On using real-life experience to draw on for her role in the The Help:

 “I have stories of being spit on. You have to realize I was in a predominantly white culture … And third grade was the worst because every day after school I would wait at the door and the bell would ring. And as soon as the bell rang I ran as fast as I could from the front door to my house, which was at least a mile away, because I would have eight to nine boys with sticks, bricks, anything they could find, who were ready to kill me.”

VOGUE: On what her mother told her about bullying:
“She said, ‘Viola, I want you to take my crochet and needle and you put it in your pocket and if they stop you again you tell them you’re gonna [stab] ‘em.’” 

VOGUE: On how her life defined her career:
“Having it hard made me build so much character … You have to actually say, ‘Is the world going to define me or am I going to define myself.’”