Different fragrances promote different emotions, and I find that fragrance gets me in the frame of mind for that person.

Don't worry about society's conditioning and the labels that are put on you by external forces. Hold onto your true self.

I try not to define myself. Other people are going to do that for you anyway.

As a biracial girl growing up in England, I'd never really seen any historical characters who looked like me depicted on film before that weren't being brutalized or playing slaves.

I try to define myself through my own choices rather than just accepting society's kind of you're that, you're that, let me put you in a box kind of thing.

I was lucky that my mother had a very well-adjusted perspective of the world, and never pressured me to do anything I didn't want to do.

I think, irrespective of your race, everybody has moments in life where they don't fit in, or where they try to puzzle through who they really are or to find the courage of their convictions.

But when you become a slave to a public persona and don’t feel comfortable without it, it becomes a shield and it shouldn’t come at the expense of your self-worth.

I'm a multi-faceted human being.

From the age of four, I loved ballet and tap. I was in the school band, the choir, and all my school plays.

I think all characters that we play are facets of ourselves.

What is it with you and that book?"Rafael laughed. "We have a personal relationship.

In our culture I think most people think of grief as sadness, and that's certainly part of it, a large part of it, but there's also this thorniness, these edges that come out.

The prime minister is 12 years old. She looks after 20 goats in the morning, but she's prime minister in the evening.

No ruler in the history of the world has ever been able to afford a war. They're not affordable things. No prince ever says, 'This is my budget, so this is the kind of war I can have.

Like most of the world's population I'm into coffee, my perfect weekend would start with a pint of coffee.

More than periods where I don't write anything, I have periods where I just write junk and I know I'm writing junk but I can't stop.

Leisure consists in all those virtuous activities by which a man grows morally, intellectually, and spiritually. It is that which makes a life worth living.

Everywhere you look on the planet people are using drums to alter consciousness.

Whatever the question, love is the answer.

If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone.