Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" I grew up in a world where the majority of people were black, so that wasn't the defining quality of anyone. When you're describing someone, you don't start out with 'he's black, he's white.' "

Related Quotes:

" I grew up watching foreign programs - American, English, Mexican, and very little Kenyan. 'The Color Purple' was the first time I saw people who looked like me. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" Before the advent of the white man, black people were doing all kinds of things with their hair. The rejection of kinks and curls did come with the white man. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" Personally, I don't ever want to depend on makeup to feel beautiful. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" I would love to have a career that's governed by the material; I always want to be part of stories that I feel are worthwhile. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" I have a very ostrich mentality. I feel like I have my head in the sand so no one can see me. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" The beauty standards had nothing to do with me in Mexico. It was such a bizarre, dire time for my hair. I was living in a small town where there was not any semblance of an African community. I'd have to take the bus to Mexico City to find a woman who could braid my hair. That was two and a half hours away. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" All throughout filming '12 Years a Slave,' there was a focus like no other. Everyone took ownership of this film and gave their all. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" I got teased and taunted about my night-shaded skin, and my one prayer to God, the miracle worker, was that I would wake up lighter-skinned. The morning would come, and I would be so excited about seeing my new skin that I would refuse to look down at myself until I was in front of a mirror because I wanted to see my fair face first. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" Whoopi Goldberg looked like me, she had hair like mine, she was dark like me. I'd been starved for images of myself. I'd grown up watching a lot of American TV. There was very little Kenyan material, because we had an autocratic ruler who stifled our creative expression. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" One of the reasons why I went to the Yale School of Drama is because I felt that I was acting off of instinct, but sometimes that is not reliable. When you're not feeling it, what do you do? So, going to grad school was about getting the tools to just use my instrument to the best of my ability. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" It's so funny, you go to acting school thinking you're going to learn how to be other people, but really it taught me how to be myself. Because it's in understanding yourself deeply that you can lend yourself to another person's circumstances and another person's experience. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" I value not being good at things, because children are not good at things. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" I love filmmaking, but I decided to go to drama school because I thought that when I'm 60 and looking back on my life, if acting hadn't been a part of it, I would hate myself. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" I spent some time back in Mexico at 16 because my parents thought it would be prudent for me to learn Spanish, because I held a Mexican passport. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" Makeup isn't something I've worn a lot of in my life. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" Being a part of '12 Years a Slave' has been one of the most profound experiences of my life. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" I definitely intend to create my own work in the future so that we don't have to keep saying, We don't have work for black women.' "

Lupita Nyong'o

" I always love to learn new things. That's the reason I like being an actor. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" We, as human beings, have the capacity for extreme cruelty. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" Clay can be dirt in the wrong hands, but clay can be art in the right hands. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" I grew up in the limelight and being the child of someone famous. So my relationship with fame is not bedazzled. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" I want to be uncomfortable - acting is uncomfortable. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" I was born in Mexico because my father was teaching at a school in Mexico City. I was born during the third year he was there. And when I was 16, I returned to Mexico to learn Spanish. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" To this day, I love eating steak tacos before going to the red carpets. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" Growing up, I had really bad skin. I had a skin disorder. Yes, I did. And my mother went to great lengths to try to find something to remedy it. I remember she took a trip to Madagascar and came back with all these alternative, medicinal herbs and stuff. They didn't smell so good, but I think they worked some magic. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" I can speak of actors that I love. I love Cate Blanchett, Viola Davis, her tenacity. I love Charlize Theron. She's so surprising and so exhilarating, the kinds of projects she takes on. Marion Cotillard as well. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" I have dabbled in martial arts all my life, since I was 7, maybe - tae kwon do, capoeira, Muay Thai. It's always been an interest because in martial arts there is a mind/body relationship. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" I hope we can form a community where a woman can speak up about abuse and not suffer another abuse by not being believed and instead being ridiculed. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" There is something about acting that's mysterious and magical because there is only so much I can do to prepare, and then I have to just let go and breathe and believe that it will come through. "

Lupita Nyong'o

" I don't ever want to be president - let's just get that out of the way. "

Lupita Nyong'o