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" My parents gave me a Mexican name. In our culture, we are named after the events of the day. "

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" It's only when you risk failure that you discover things. When you play it safe, you're not expressing the utmost of your human experience. "

" 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. "

" Drama is my sweet spot, but the thing about being an actor is that you want to do a variety of things. I definitely love fantasy and would want to be in a fantasy project. "

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

" My conscious life has all been in Kenya, and it's my point of reference. But going back to Mexico was very formative. "

" I didn't love my hair when I was a child. It was lighter than my skin, which made me not love it so much. I was really kind of envious of girls with thicker, longer, more lush hair. "

" As human beings, what makes us able to empathize with people is a connection that is not necessarily understood mentally. "

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

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

" Home is where my family is. "

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

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

" 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.' "

" Human beings have an instinct for freedom. "

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

" 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. "

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

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

" I'm pretty awesome at making salad dressings. "

" 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. "

" I never, in my wildest dreams, could I have thought that the first role I get out of school would lead to an Oscar nomination. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I thrive on structure. I find my freedom in structure. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I am thrilled beyond words that The Academy has recognized my performance in Steve McQueen's '12 Years a Slave,' and I am deeply proud to be in the company of my fellow nominees. "

" There's always a sense of newness with acting, because every role, you come to every role fresh. "