Ruby Dee Quotes

Author Image

Ruby Dee

Profession : Actress

Birth : October 27, 1922

I think you mustn't tell your body, you mustn't tell your soul, 'I'm going to retire.' You may be changing your life emphasis, but there's still things that you have in mind to do that now seems the right time to do.

Ruby Dee

I really don't believe in retiring as long as you can breathe.

Ruby Dee

Well, I didn't grow up with that word 'retirement' as part of my consciousness. I didn't grow up with professionals that retired. I thought retiring was when you are tired and go to bed.

Ruby Dee

My whole life is not defined by what Hollywood does.

Ruby Dee

An Oscar nomination? That would be a very satisfying thing, I'm sure. I would appreciate the thought. It would be like taking your hat off as an actor to all the people who walk through you.

Ruby Dee

I never remember, like, saying, 'Well, I'm going to belong - join the civil rights movement.'

Ruby Dee

My experience for myself as a performer is not one of high expectations.

Ruby Dee

You should always be prepared to win. But as much as I tell myself that, I've accepted another kind of role. Racism undercuts expectation, something like that. I'm not saying that to excuse myself from anything, but I've lived all this time, and things don't happen.

Ruby Dee

You're not supposed to go into business with the sole purpose of putting your neighbor out of business. This is not the United States of Corporate America.

Ruby Dee

I remember street corners and pickets and parades. That's what I got teethed on.

Ruby Dee

A nation's youths shouldn't be sent off to die.

Ruby Dee

One reason I didn't trust my writing for so long was that I always considered myself a serious dramatic actor. But people would always laugh when I shared my writing with them. It took my husband to help me see that I really am part humorist.

Ruby Dee

When I was young, I dreamt of being a starlet in Hollywood. But there comes a point in every African American's life when you realize the limitations, that you could only play maids or some little supporting role. Even Lena Horne couldn't get good parts.

Ruby Dee

Racism is a very insidious thing. It's dangerous to the psyche, to mind and body. It erodes the self-confidence. And I don't know how we get through it.

Ruby Dee

I don't think the arts would have been as meaningful to me if I hadn't grown up in Harlem.

Ruby Dee

African-Americans have a lot to teach the world.

Ruby Dee

God has use for all the old people.

Ruby Dee

The nature of racism is that it grinds down the soul of the man more finely than it does the soul of the woman. When you want to conquer a people or subject it, you destroy the male component.

Ruby Dee

You have to learn how to be married. You have to learn to love somebody.

Ruby Dee

The economics of life is against the family.

Ruby Dee