Lupita Nyong'o

“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.”

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

“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.”

“It's great to have something to dress up for. You know, I spent three years in slacks at drama school, so now I like putting a dress on.”

“My father was a professor of political science and also a young politician fighting for democracy in Kenya, and when things got ugly, he went into political exile in Mexico. Then I moved back to Kenya shortly after I turned one, and I grew up in Kenya.”

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

“I was raised in Kenya, and I always wanted to be an actor from when I was really, really little, but the first time I thought it was something that I could make a career of was when I watched 'The Color Purple.' I think I was nine, maybe, and I saw people that looked like me - Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah.”

“Every single laundromat, grocery store, everything is called 'Lupita' in Mexico.”

“I've loved the opportunity to learn about the fashion world and appreciate it as an art form, and I look forward to my continued education, but I never want it to take over my acting.”

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“I was part of a growing community of women who were secretly dealing with harassment by Harvey Weinstein. But I also did not know that there was a world in which anybody would care about my experience with him.”

“Dreams are the foundation of Hollywood. And dreams are the foundation of America.”

“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.”

“I went to an all-boys high school, and they accepted girls in only the two A.P. classes.”

“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.”

“I learned at Yale, one of the biggest lessons was to learn how special I am and therefore how totally unspecial I am. I was special among everyone else who was special. The fact that we're all so individual and that's what makes us special.”

“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.”