Lupita Nyong'o

“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...”

“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 m...”

“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.”

“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.”

“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...”

“When I was younger, I was almost too afraid to admit that I wanted to be an actor. I didn't know any successful actors in Kenya, so I felt like I could get away with going to college to stud...”

“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 watche...”

“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...”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I'm Mexican and Kenyan at the same time. I've seen the quarrels over my nationality, but I'm Kenyan and Mexican at the same time. So again, I am Mexican-Kenyan, and I am fascinated by carne...”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“I spent some time back in Mexico at 16 because my parents thought it would be prudent for me to learn Spanish, because I held a Mexican passport.”