I grew up in a very racially integrated place called Pottstown. It was an agricultural / industrial town which has since become a suburb of Philadelphia. I grew up basically in a black neighborhood.
I have a really beautiful mother. She is close to 60, and to this day doesn't wear a speck of make up or dye her hair, and everyone who meets her is completely dazzled by her. She seriously glows.
In the first two episodes, before she becomes Queen, I could be a lot freer with my emotions, but as the series goes on, she develops an armour in order to cope with her circumstances. She has to be a sphinx, which must be so hard. Imagine never being able to shout, 'Shut up,' or cry, even in front of your own family.
The critics are always right. The only way you shut them up is by winning.
I think that's the strength of photography - to decide the decisive moment, to click in the moment to come up with a picture that never comes back again.
I love romance. I think our skin clears up and we're nicer when you are in love.
In August 1961, I visited President Kennedy at Hyannis Port. The Berlin Wall was going up, and he was about to begin a huge military buildup - reluctantly, or so he said, as he puffed on a cigar liberated by a friend from Castro's Cuba.
I don't think patience is something that any of us grow up with in a large dose. It's a world of instant gratification.
I started out pursuing an acting career out of college when I lived in Los Angeles. When I got an entry into broadcasting, I preferred it. I liked being me, rather than dressing up to be someone else. Now I'm 30 and doing a career of my own and have been in this career for eight years.
Everything bad happens to set up something good. I've always found that to be true. I think if most folks look back on the history of their lives, they'll see that.
Sometimes when you date people, you end up breaking up, and if teammates are mature enough to deal with that, then it's okay. I never want to bring any undue drama to the team.
I think right now the way society's going, I think role models are important, and kids need direction. If I didn't have that direction growing up, who knows what I could be doing, because I've been lost many times in my life, and I've had to have someone guide me back on the right path.
Rock and Roll is still asking people like me to live up to the old guard's concept of what success is but it doesn't mean anything.
Where I grew up, people obviously knew my dad because it's a small place and he was the top player for Swinton - they'd go and watch him play, see him in the papers, so they knew he was black.
I grew up in Huntsville, which is a main prison town. It's crazy. The conditions are so bad in prison, often, for the inmates.
You know that wherever you go, not everyone will speak your language. But go and experience the local culture and try to pick up as much as you can. I certainly think going forward - away from football because football is just a small part of your life - you will grow as a person.
Talent can pop up anywhere in the world, it's not just one city block.
When you buy a new pair of heels, walk up and down the stairs 10 times. Stairs are the most difficult thing, so if you can do stairs, then you can do everything else.
I grew up in a small town in Washington State, so I wasn't really aware of costume design as a career growing up, but I loved clothes. I remember I saved all my money, and the first thing that I bought was a white blazer, which was to the horror to my parents. But I have always had a strange connection with clothing.
I don't know how much you follow current events. For some, there's not enough time to keep up on what's happening; for others, the news is too depressing, and peering too deeply fills one with boiling frustration all too quickly.
People don't want to experience change; they just want to wake up, and it's different.
I came up with, 'I am a lost boy from Neverland, usually hanging out with Peter Pan' and recorded that simple line on my phone. I watched it back and thought it was kinda cheesy, and I was actually going to delete it. But I thought 'Whatever, it's catchy.'
I grew up watching my dad scout games live. They played on Saturday. Sometimes they wouldn't get the films until Monday. Sunday air shipping from wherever the college team was located - Starkville, Mississippi, or wherever the film was coming from. It took two days.
I'm kinda not one of those people that likes to put up trophies in my house, because I don't want my mom to come be like, 'Hey, you're full of yourself.'
We grow up with this idea that we're all individual agents. We work, make our money, have our place to live and our satellite TV. But whether you like it or not, you need family or community.
The easiest thing to do in the world is pull the covers up over your head and go back to sleep.
My family is first-generation Nigerian, and we grew up in a very small, suburban town in New England, Massachusetts. So I do understand what it feels like to be an 'only' in that regard.
Don't get caught up in the 'look' thing. Sometimes, we as men and women, the first thing that attracts us to someone is their physical appearance, and that's not always a good thing because what's good on the outside is not always good on the inside.
I want to get up and ride my horses, do what I love doing. I don't want to be recognised.
I don't want to be Batman. Let Val Kilmer do it. I just want to be Uncle Batman. I have this whole 'warm relationship' plot in my mind. In the final scenes, the new Batmobile breaks down, the new Batman's stranded on the side of the road. We grab our old Batmobile, pick him up and drive away.
I think I really thought I was a boy until I was ten years old because my parents divorced when I was born, and so my three brothers were almost like my fathers growing up. So they taught me how to ride a bike and all that stuff. I really was just kind of a guy's girl and just kind of an outspoken - some could say obnoxious - in-your-face kid.
Growing up South African, I was comparatively in a world of privilege, especially being the youngest and being figuratively wrapped up in cotton wool by the rest of the family.
One thing I refuse to do is force it. So I've canceled many auditions because nothing has come up, and I don't want to waste anybody's time. God forbid they outright give it to me and I don't connect with it.
I had to go into a studio and compose and write and press up 12 songs in 14 hours. When you're recording a song from scratch it takes you 14 hours to do just one song.
I was a pop freak. I love music. Of course, I knew soul because I grew up in it. Writing it and everything. I love soul. But I love a tune that has some meat in it. Something I could hang my hat on. Because music is universal. Therefore, I felt no boundaries.
The reason I'm an actor and am trying to make my way in drama is to move people, to affect people, to gain a response - so these people who come up to you in the street are your audience.
