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.

- Lupita Nyong'o

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.

- Lupita Nyong'o

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.

- Lupita Nyong'o

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

- Lupita Nyong'o

I discovered that joy is not the negation of pain, but rather acknowledging the presence of pain and feeling happiness in spite of it.

- Lupita Nyong'o