I realized that beauty was not a thing that I could acquire or consume, it was something that I just had to be.

To be human is to seek perfection, and find joy in never attaining it.

I like people who don't tell you what you want to hear.

I do my best work when I feel conviction to say something through the character I play. Always I want to have integrity and not compromise that.

Whoopi Goldberg looked like me, she had hair like mine, she was dark like me. I'd been starved for images of myself. I'd grown up watching a lot of American TV.

Everyone said, ‘Brace yourself, Lupita! Keep a granola bar in that clutch of yours!’ I didn’t really understand what they meant, and it was only once it was past that I realized that my body had been holding on by a thread to get through this very intense experience. Nothing can prepare you for awards season. The red carpet feels like a war zone, except you cannot fly or fight; you just have to stand there and take it.

You have to allow for the impossible to be possible.