Uzo Aduba quotes:

My mother is a fighter. After she battled polio and learned to walk again, the doctors told her she would be a cripple her entire life. Instead of accepting defeat, she refused this fate and went on to become the West African Women's Singles tennis champion in college.

I left my home in Massachusetts after college to move to New York City to pursue my dreams of acting. I took roles for free. I waited tables. I didn't care because it was work.

I dream in color, and I have visions of feelings and energies that I would love to feel.

The first information I consume in the morning is probably 'The New York Times' and then my Twitter feed. I think Twitter is a really fascinating, easy way to stay on top of what stories are out there.

I kept hiding my smile in pictures throughout middle school and most of high school until picture day came my senior year.

I love ensemble work. I love making pieces and building things together.

I ran track in high school very competitively, and then ran it D-1 at Boston University. I ran there on an athletic scholarship and chose BU because they had both a good track program and an arts program.

I come from Nigeria, and we live by the idea that it takes a village. So my entire team. I live by my team: my friends, my neighbors, my teachers - they're the people who taught me how to be a free actor.

If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky and Michelangelo and Dostoyevsky, they can learn to say Uzoamaka.

I am the daughter of Nigerian immigrants. My mother is a survivor of both polio and of the Igbo genocide during her country's civil war in the late 1960s.

I was pursuing the arts with theater in school, and I was doing after-school activities, but not in any real movement towards a professional career.

I love De la Renta. I love CoSTUME National; I think they're just incredible. And I love Marc Jacobs, too - they're also great, just a great brand.

I'd read a lot of scripts, and I remember reading 'Orange Is the New Black,' and it was at the head of the pack. I remember thinking, 'Wow, that is really good. I would love to be a part of that.'

When I was little, I didn't smile much. Don't get me wrong. I was a happy kid, but I couldn't stand the space, dead center, in between my teeth. Yeah, I could whistle through it, but so what? That didn't win me many points on the playground in Medfield, Massachusetts.

Onstage, even though you're here together with the other actor, face-to-face, playing out the scene, you also have that other ear pointed out toward the audience and how they're listening. That informs a lot.

I loved Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi. Its about a first-generation African family living in America that has to return home to Nigeria when their estranged father passes away.

When it comes to inmates, we have boiled them down to just the few things we know about them - their crime, their current life situation, their identification number. But the reality is they were something before they were their crime.

In performance, you don't always feel that sort of family bond right off the top. It sort of develops and grows over time.

My family is more a sports family, and I figure skated for a very long time, so movement and how I relate to movement is very integral to my process.

People were stopping me on the street to say, 'Oh my God, it's Crazy Eyes!' Which is kind of a funny thing to have people shout at you on the street.

My family is from Nigeria, and my full name is Uzoamaka, which means 'The road is good.'

You think the only thing looking at you is this steel thing, but behind the camera is this living, breathing person operating the camera whose job it is to watch you.

I might literally fall over dead if I meet Oprah Winfrey. I'm kind of joking, but I'm not confident that wouldn't happen.

If you're already somebody who's feeling different, you'll do everything in your power to fix it because children will do everything in their power to fit in and assimilate.

I think of myself as a little kid, and I had a wild imagination, but it was something that was encouraged and supported, which helped steer me into the arts.

I've heard of nothing coming from nothing, but I've never heard of absolutely nothing coming from hard work.

In performance, you dont always feel that sort of family bond right off the top. It sort of develops and grows over time.

My finding of myself as an artist, which I think in itself helped me to find just who I am and how I want to express myself, is entirely - in conjunction, of course, with my family, particularly my mom - founded on teachers.

On some days in prison you might just need to get out of there, but on some days - not all days, but some - you might be able to see the sky and see the blue in it.

I love physicality. I love movement very much.

I loved 'Ghana Must Go' by Taiye Selasi. It's about a first-generation African family living in America that has to return home to Nigeria when their estranged father passes away.

My parents wanted us to be well-rounded individuals and really have the American experiences as richly as one can.

I think it's always a good idea to dress as someone you like, as long as it's done in good taste. That's the key.

Faith is a big thing we explore.

I think theres something really thrilling to having to get people laughing about something, and then, when you have them in that comfort space, you can drop the weight into the texture of the story.

I'm realizing, you don't need to change anything about yourself. This is who you are, and it's okay. That's daring.

It's exciting to watch people do and write and say what they feel like doing, writing and saying.

Ive heard of nothing coming from nothing, but Ive never heard of absolutely nothing coming from hard work.

My mother is a fighter. After she battled polio and learned to walk again, the doctors told her she would be a cripple her entire life. Instead of accepting defeat, she refused this fate and went on to become the West African Womens Singles tennis champion in college.

My only want and wish, really, was to tell a good story. I wanted to do good work, tell a good story, and give the character a voice. Those were my only expectations.