To this day, I love eating steak tacos before going to the red carpets. Lupita Nyong'o More Quotes by Lupita Nyong'o More Quotes From Lupita Nyong'o 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. Lupita Nyong'o phonesdramaschool I'm pretty awesome at making salad dressings. Lupita Nyong'o salad-dressingdressingssalad Steve McQueen is a genius. And I think that word is overused, but I think with Steve it's rightly used. He's a genius. Lupita Nyong'o usedgeniusthinking I grew up in Nairobi, which is the capital of Kenya, so it's hustle and bustle, and there's always something going on. Lupita Nyong'o kenyahustle-and-bustlegrew-up We, as human beings, have the capacity for extreme cruelty. Lupita Nyong'o extremescrueltycapacity 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. Lupita Nyong'o dramayearsschool My immediate family was always very supportive. It was my own fear of the rest of the world not accepting me, the rest of our society not accepting my wish to be an actor. Lupita Nyong'o supportiveactorswish I went to the Independent Spirit Awards and won. Lupita Nyong'o independentawardsspirit Clay can be dirt in the wrong hands, but clay can be art in the right hands. Lupita Nyong'o wrongrighthandsart What colonialism does is cause an identity crisis about one's own culture. Lupita Nyong'o owncrisisidentityculture I don't need to be so full of myself that I feel I am without flaw. I can feel beautiful and imperfect at the same time. I have a healthy relationship with my aesthetic insecurities. Lupita Nyong'o myselftimebeautifulrelationship 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. Lupita Nyong'o everyonei-amhowspecial 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 womanmetimebeauty I give myself homework when I have an audition. I give myself goals, and that's how I check how I'm doing. It can be something simple like 'listen,' or 'find your feet.' And then afterward it's an assessment, so in a way it's not about booking the job or not. It's about what I learned as an actor about that character. Lupita Nyong'o goalsmyselfsimplecharacter There have been rumors and rumors and rumors about my love life. That's the one area that I really like to hold close to my heart. Lupita Nyong'o love-lifeheartlovelife 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. Lupita Nyong'o thinkmetimepeople I come from a very close class. I lucked out because drama schools are often very competitive... I have fourteen classmates. Lupita Nyong'o comeclassmatesclassdrama As human beings, we aren't as individual as we'd like to believe we are. And I think that's what makes acting possible. Despite the fact that I have not experienced something, I have it in my human capacity to imagine it and to put myself in someone else's shoes, and to take someone else's circumstances personally. Lupita Nyong'o myselfthinkshoesbelieve 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 mirrormyselfgodmorning I loved make-believe. I was the child in the cupboard playing with my Barbies. Lupita Nyong'o make-believeplayinglovedchild
