136 Quotes by Chiwetel Ejiofor

This is going to sound completely absurd, but I do sometimes feel like the enjoyment of an awards ceremony or the pride in the finished article hasn’t ever surpassed the joy of doing the work, of making it. The doing it is really the bit I’m there for.

The thing about film is it is a very precise form. You know if you have it and you know if you don’t have it. There’s not really a middle bit where you’re like, “I think we kind of have that scene.”

I fell in love with film. I didn’t start out to be a film actor. I wanted to be a theater actor.

I started working as an actor, semi-professionally, when I was 16, and got my first professional gig at 19. I guess I’ve kind of worked pretty consistently since then.

Steve MCQueen created an entire family to tell one man’s tale and I am delighted that so many of this family have also been recognised today. I am hugely grateful to the Academy for this great honour, and, of course, to Solomon Northup for sharing his story through his breathtaking book.

I have always been very fortunate in my working life in terms of the, I say that like I’ve not been fortunate at all in my private life.

In England, there's no acknowledgement the invention of slavery came from Britain.

I've just tried to keep my eyes open, tried to read everything you can, and tried to see whether I see myself within it. If I do, then I can get excited about it.

Dividing everybody into genders and sexuality and races and religions, and I think it's important to have films out there, to have discussions out there which really try to get to grips with where that kind of thing can lead.