20 Memorable Quotes from Viola Davis' FINDING ME

by Cyrus Webb

Released in 2022 FINDING ME by Viola Davis continues to speak to the hearts and minds of reading, still sitting as a bestselling memoir in 2023. The book is not just her story. It's a look at what is possible for us all, beginning with our relationship with ourselves.

There are many passages from the book that are sure to speak to readers, meeting them where they are. These 20 memorable quotes are some of my favorites. I believe they will be some of yours as well. 

1.  “My biggest discovery was that you can literally re-create your life. You can redefine it. You don’t have to live in the past. I found that not only did I have fight in me, I had love.”
2. “Memories are immortal. They’re deathless and precise. They have the power of giving you joy and perspective in hard times. Or, they can strangle you. Define you in a way that’s based more in other people’s tucked-up perceptions than truth.”
3. “I now understand that life, and living it, is more about being present. I’m now aware that the not-so-happy memories lie in wait; but the hope and the joy also lie in wait.”
4. “Forgiveness is giving up all hope of a different past. They tell you successful therapy is when you have the big discovery that your parents did the best they could with what they were given.”
5. “I knew my life would be a fight, and I realized this: I had it in me.”
6. “learned the hard way that when there are underlying issues, money does nothing. In fact, money exacerbates the problem because it takes away the individual’s ability to be held accountable.”
7. “Remember the love. . . . Don’t play the pain and betrayal, play the woman fighting hard to restore the love.”
8. “I was sold lies for two years and the worst part is that I believed it because I couldn't combat it with anything else.”
9. "You make it or you don’t. You either sink or you swim.”
10. “I could create my own family and I could create it intentionally with what I had learned.”
11. “We are after all observers of life. We are after all a conduit, a channeler of people. What you haven’t resolved in your life can absolutely become an obstacle in the work that you do.”
12. “For every one actor who makes it to fame there are fifty thousand more who did exactly the same things, yet didn’t make it.”
13. “When you’re poor, you live in an alternate reality. It’s not that we have problems different from everyone else, but we don’t have the resources to mask them. We’ve been stripped clean of social protocol.”
14. “And whereas I can’t live inside yesterday’s pain, I can’t live without it.”
15. “It’s futile to ask why. Instead ask yourself, ‘What did I learn from this?’” What have I learned from all of it? There is absolutely no way whatsoever to get through this life without scars.”
16. “Show me the hero. Show me the tragedy. Heroes always cause their own downfalls. I didn't want to be a hero.”
17. “I’m no longer ashamed of me. I own everything that has ever happened to me. The parts that were a source of shame are actually my warrior fuel. I see people—the way they walk, talk, laugh, and grieve, and their silence—in a way that is hyper-focused because of my past. I’m an artist because there’s no separation from me and every human being that has passed through the world including my mom.”
18. “Luck is an elusive monster who chooses when to come out of its cave to strike and who will be its recipient. It’s a business of deprivation.”
19. “Memories are immortal. They're deathless and precise. They have the power of giving you joy and perspective in hard times. Or, they can strangle you. Define you in a way that's based more in other people's tucked-up perceptions than truth.”
20. “Everything had been hard for me. I mastered hard. Now, I wanted joy.”