Top 25 Tamara Tunie Quotes

Living in New York, for me at least, just keeps it very real and keeps my feet firmly planted on the ground.

I took the whole college prep trajectory, and then in my senior year of high school, I decided that performing was something that I had always done as a kid, and I loved it… I said, ‘This makes people happy when I do this, I feel good, I get to pretend and explore other areas and learn so much’.

Chuck Cooper is a friend, and I adore him. He can do so many things.

I was the first African-American woman to play Maggie in ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.’ It was at the Virginia State Theatre, and we turned Richmond upside down.

I truly believe that when a person makes a concrete decision and takes action towards a goal that they’ve set, that the universe will step in and provide opportunities.

The first thing I do is brush my teeth – we like to start the morning with fresh breath – and put on my pajamas and meander down to the kitchen for a glass of orange juice. No coffee. No caffeine.

I grew up in Pittsburgh, and regularly, my parents would take us to the Holiday House Supper Club to see acts like Nancy Wilson, Sarah Vaughn, Ben Vereen, Freda Payne, Stephanie Mills, and The Temptations, to name a few.

You have to continue to grow and evolve as individuals in order for your marriage to evolve. It takes two pillars to support a structure. If those two pillars become one, you have a structure that teeters.

I’ve lived in New York for thirty years now, but I’m a proud Pittsburgher, and home is home. My family’s still in Pittsburgh.

We sit and read the paper in conjunction with having a little breakfast. Usually fruit salad, or I make myself a smoothie with rice milk, coconut water and yogurt.

All you have is yourself and what you have to present, and just focus on that. And if you can walk out of the audition and say to yourself, ‘I hit all my beats,’ ‘I accomplished my emotional honesty,’ or ‘I remembered my words,’ then that’s winning.

I’m always happy and most at home on the stage. I love film and television, but I love live performance… your immediacy with the audience, it makes all the difference in the world.

I wake up late, say 10 or 11, because we’ve usually been out and about town until 2 or 3 A.M. listening to music at the jazz clubs or hitting the jazz clubs post-theater.

Working on a film is so great because you have the luxury of more time when you’re on a movie than when you’re on television.

I’m Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. I’m Italian on Columbus Day. I’m a New Yorker every day.

I wanted to make a home that was similar to the kind of home that my mother made. To be able to create something like that in my adopted city, New York City, one of the toughest cities on the planet, is really special.

I always watch the work I do.

I believe in saying ‘yes.’ I love to work, and I always believe that the schedule can work out if everything is willing to allow it to work out.

I have Native American blood. I have African blood. I have European blood.

I just think there are enough hours in the day. If you just focus and dedicate yourself and approach each task as it presents itself, you can accomplish a lot.

Show business is fickle, and though I have been blessed with a healthy career, who knows how long that will last?

When I first moved to New York, all I did was musical theater. That’s what I studied at Carnegie Mellon University.

I grew up in a funeral home. Both my parents were morticians.

Fortunately, I’m known as the hardest-working woman in showbiz, not to compete with James Brown. I’ve always been a multi-tasker.

I missed singing. I missed performing in a nightclub.