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" My mother talked about the stories I used to spin as a child of three, before I started school. I would tell this story about what school I went to and what uniform I wore and who I talked to at lunchtime and what I ate, and my mother was like, 'This girl does not even go to school.' "

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" 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.' "

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" I do my best work when I feel conviction to say something through the character I play. Always I want to have integrity and not compromise that. "

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" Ralph Fiennes was a pivotal influence on me. He asked me, 'So what is it you want to do?' I very shyly, timidly admitted that I wanted to be an actor. He sighed, and he said, 'Lupita, only be an actor if you feel there is nothing else in the world you want to do - only do it if you feel you cannot live without acting.' "

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" I'm interested in generating work for myself. I have trouble with this waiting-for-the-phone-to-ring lifestyle, especially after drama school, which was so creatively fulfilling. "

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" The muscles you flex in theater are muscles that you really need. I must always find a way to get back there. It's irreplaceable. "

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" Slavery is something that is all too often swept under the carpet. The shame doesn't even belong to us, but we still experience it because we're a part of the African race. If it happened to one, it happened to all. We carry that burden. "

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" I didn't know any successful actors in Kenya, so I felt like I could get away with going to college to study film more easily than I could with saying, 'I want to be an actor.' That's what I did. "

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" 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. "

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" I haven't always been gluten-free. "

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" I had moved back to Kenya after undergrad, and I went through this crisis of, 'What is my life going to be about?' "

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" 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. "

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

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" 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. "

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" 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. "

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

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

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" 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. "

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" I feel privileged that people are looking up to me, and perhaps a dream will be born because of my presence. "

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

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" I thought I was going to school to be other people, but really, what I learned was to be myself - accepting myself, my strengths and weaknesses. "

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" 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. "

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" I come from a very close class. I lucked out because drama schools are often very competitive... I have fourteen classmates. "

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" I never understood who all those people are behind the actors! When you see them on the red carpet on TV, you go, 'Why does that person need such a large entourage?' And then you realize that every single person there has a role to play. "

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" The set of '12 Years a Slave' was an extremely joyous one! We all recognized that we were making a powerful, necessary and beautiful film, and we weren't about doing it without that sense of responsibility, and we recognized that we needed each other to tell this story. We also knew we needed to hold each other up as we told the story. "

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" My father used to act in high school. He was in a production of 'Othello;' I don't know who he played, but it wasn't Othello. He would talk about it, though, and read Shakespeare to me. "

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" The first time I cut all my hair off was when I was 19. I just got fed up going to the salon every week. I'd had enough! On a whim, it was off. It's low-maintenance. "

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" 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. "

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" Dreams are the foundation of Hollywood. And dreams are the foundation of America. "

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

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" 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. "

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