Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

We all have a dark side. Most of us go through life avoiding direct confrontation with that aspect of ourselves, which I call the shadow self. There's a reason why. It carries a great deal of energy.

Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

I know what it was like to not have a voice, so my daughter has a voice. I veto that voice when needed because at the end of the day I am the grown-up, but I hear her.

Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

I find I often do my best work when I'm not attached to the outcome of the audition.

Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

I grew up under the British system, which I think is horrific for children - very, very strict - a system that did not recognize children as being individuals. You were small animals earning the right to be human.

Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

When you're playing a real character, you want to honor that person and receive inspiration from that person. They need to anoint you in some way that allows you to borrow just a small piece of their soul. That is the flame.

Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

'Body of Proof' was interesting because... I didn't feel I needed to prove anything in that audition. I didn't over-prepare it, but I was just very relaxed in it.

Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

I meditate. I've been a meditator since, I think I was doing it unofficially before all my life and then began to formalize it somewhere around 14.

Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

Pretend and real are all real to a psychopath.

Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

I have a big life, a small child, I work, I do a lot of things, so I'm often playing catch-up with what's current.

Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

My job as an actor is to cover and expose in varying allowance that - so that the audience can peek through the window to the people I create.

Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

When you eliminate vanity from an art form, and I would think that this would be any art form, what is left is an opportunity to be incredibly naked and truthful.

Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

I don't think anyone would disagree with this: You are self-directed in daytime, and that's it. So come with it, and bring it on the first take.

Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

Once I'm on set, the only thing I'm really interested in is being in the room. Being present. And trusting that what I've done is sufficient, and I'm also trusting that I've also left room for magic.

Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

As a modern woman, there are things I take for granted, and that shows up in the way I sit, the way I walk, the way I think, and what I know to be possible.

Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

Anything you need, you can get on YouTube. It's wacky.

Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

We actors are superstitious creatures. We do all the homework, and we put all of the components together, but there's always one key aspect that we're not in charge of, really, and that's magic. You are always on the lookout for where and how that magic is going to ignite.

Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

People's faith, people's beliefs are such a personal thing, and it defies definition. I'm so rarely interested in discussing what I believe or what you believe. I think it's liquid, anyway.

Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

How well I walk my talk, and not talk my talk, determines the quality of my engagement, of all my experience with what is quite personally my God. I'm my greatest teacher, and within me, I have the power to push myself deeper and higher.

Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

I was born odd. I was a strange child. My grandmother was always praying over me. She was always rubbing me and praying over me.

Lorraine Toussaint
Lorraine Toussaint

I think if I weren't an actress, I might have made a halfway decent attorney! I like the way they think.