Daniel Kaluuya

“Big up Samuel L. Jackson, because here's a guy who has broken down doors.”

“What I find really exciting is stories from a different viewpoint.”

“Nas is such a touchstone in my world.”

“If I was at school and one of my friends said something funny, I'd write it down in a notebook and take it to the writers meetings. I never told my friends about it. I just thought I could incorporate stuff that was true to life.”

“In the real world, there's probably nothing more horrifying than racism. Living racism is a horrifying experience. And then, having to normalize it and internalize it.”

“I have to show off my struggle so that people accept that I'm black. No matter that every single room I go to, I'm usually the darkest person there... I kind of resent that mentality. I'm just an individual.”

“Donae'o is too cold; he's been dropping bangers since 2000.”

“I just like playing guys, normal dudes. That's the stuff that I really enjoy watching: when it feels grounded.”

“This industry's hard. The world is hard. Being young and black is tough.”

“I am definitely not a household face, and I don't expect to be one.”

“I think that's all you do as an actor. You give ingredients for the edit, and the edit's the stew, and they try to make a meal out of it. That's all you are. You just throw things in. This is an idea, this is an idea.”

“All I'm doing is being in films that I would watch if I wasn't in this industry.”

“I'm dark-skinned. When I'm around black people, I'm made to feel 'other' because I'm dark-skinned. I've had to wrestle with that, with people going, 'You're too black.' Then I come to America, and they say, 'You're not black enough.'”

“Loads of stuff that I've done has always had a hint of comedy. I did this show called 'Psychoville' that's a horror-comedy. Because I just think that's what life's like.”

“'The Fades' is its own world. If you try and link it to some religion, you have people going, 'Oh, that's not right,' with their Bible open. Let's just chuck some imagination at it.”

“I resent that I have to prove that I'm black.”

“Even people who say that black people are minorities, there are a billion black people in the world. A billion white people. What part of that is a minority? If you separate yourself, then maybe. But I see black people as one man. When I see people beaten on the streets of America, that hurts me. I feel that.”

“Everything men do is for women.”

“A lot of time, people enter the most depressing situations, and they are the funniest people on Earth, because they have to be. It's a coping mechanism.”

“Racism kills people. It kills people!”