Top 99 Quotes & Sayings by Zawe Ashton - Page 2

I'm Hackney born and bred and find it hard to call anywhere else home despite the extreme ongoing gentrification which gets me down.

How long have we got to talk about women of colour and imposter syndrome. It's a real thing, and many people have it. It's, I think, a particular characteristic of the overachiever. Because you're bottomless, you never think what you've achieved is enough.

If I was someone who wanted to do just love-interest roles then I'd be in a difficult position. But thankfully I'm someone who likes to do things that are edgy and different.

I actually grew up around the corner from where Harold Pinter did. If you want a snapshot of my childhood, me and Pinter, we essentially grew up together.

I'm a keen experimenter in the kitchen. With food, not with anything else!

Art galleries are the best first date spots for my money.

I used 'Saved by the Bell: The College Years' as my reference point really for my 'Fresh Meat' experience.

I would like to have a baby.

I'm someone who likes to explore the complexities in people.

Episodic TV is notoriously brutal because just when you think 'I've got this, I know this character' you can pick up the script for series four and you die in the first episode - or your character suddenly transitions from a woman to a man.

The first stage play I ever did was a school play called 'The Wishing Chair.'

Mum got me involved in every activity under the sun - singing, dancing and drama classes at the Anna Scher theatre school.

I want to be a successful actor, never a famous star. Because one is an organic meal that will sustain you, and the other is toxic.

I don't tend to go into any job thinking about the audience reaction.

I've never lived in north or west London, so I'd like to come out of my comfort zone for a bit. But Stoke Newington is where my heart is, it's where I'm born and bred.

If you cut me open I bleed East London.

I've had times in the past where I wanted to give up acting, get my head out of the arts because it was like my constitution couldn't deal with it. My job means I get judged on my looks; I get discriminated against because of my sex; I take on roles that are so two-dimensional... you can go mad trying to fill that third dimension.

I've always acted, it's my passion and belief system.

From the outside, some people might consider me a hipster!

Being yourself, or being judged as yourself, is really scary.

I'm not really concerned about being liked on stage - I'm a bit more concerned about it off stage.

The actors I admire always have something to say, or a level of poetry, belief, activism or intelligence about what they do or how they feel.

If people call my book an actor's memoir I will be very upset. I can't bear anything too literal, so it has elements of truth and elements of fiction sitting side by side.

When you work in film sets, when you're working on projects that are male dominated, you are always treated as the last priority.

I've always wanted to live somewhere extremely nice like Sloane Square... although that would probably be too nice for me.

As an actor you can always blame the director or writer for negative feedback. But as a writer, you're the reason why everyone's in the room.

Good writing shouldn't be wrapped in cellophane. It should be open to the elements and full of maggots and it should be left to grow and deepen and fester.

I've had doors slammed in my face, I've been shouted at in my face in meetings when I've stood up for myself.

I like clothes that feel fresh and surprising.

Tennessee Williams moves my soul.

It's wonderful that newer brands such as Fenty are making clear statements about being for all skin tones.

It has taken a long time for me to really dress as the artist that I am: I'm an indie girl, I like experimental, I like things to be subverted. Details are the fun part.

I know I'm different and I don't fit in to any kind of generic mould.

What a character wears and how it affects their mood and their movements has always been very important to me. A character's clothes, if they're truthful, can make audiences feel something.

Honestly, the life of a serial character on television, I'd love to write an essay about it.

I do always try and do work that I'm going to be interested in talking about when it's released.

Art should be for everyone, not just the rich.

I love writing with pen and paper; I hate technology.

No-one tells you about being in episodic television and it ending. No-one tells you how painful it is. How bizarre it is when you've dedicated your life to one character for five years.