Mahershala Ali Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
-
“To really be conscious of how long the journey is, be patient, push yourself, persevere and always be working on your craft while waiting for your break.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“Hold tight to the mentality of being a student, meaning hold on to curiosity and approach life as a student.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“I always hope to be a better person tomorrow than today.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“The people that I admire have a wonderful balance of self-belief and humility.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“At the end of the day we're all spirits having a physical experience.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“What inspires me today is a desire to get closer to an understanding of what my artistic capacities are with the hope of organically sharing my gifts with an audience in the most heightened way I possibly can.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“When we kind of get caught up in the minutiae, the details that make us all different, I think there's two ways of seeing that. There's an opportunity to see the texture of that person, the characteristics that make them unique. And then there's an opportunity to go to war about it and to say that that person is different from me and I don't like you, so let's battle.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“At the end of the day we're all spirits having a physical experience. That really comes from my relationship with Islam because it just makes me really conscious of my action.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“I think what I've learned from working on "Moonlight" is we see what happens when you persecute people. They fold into themselves.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“I feel like [terrorism] acts are un-Islamic. So to see that happen and somebody do that in the name of God, it just - and the religion that you practice, it just - it hurts your heart so deeply because it's such a misrepresentation of the faith.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“I was always sort of ahead of myself in some way, shape or form and trying to envision how to get further along and closer to fulfilling that dream of being of being free and having a creative agency, so to speak.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“My mother is an ordained minister. I'm a Muslim. She didn't do backflips when I called her to tell her I converted 17 years ago. But I tell you now, we put things to the side, and I was able to - I'm able to see her. She's able to see me. We love each other.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“I went to a mosque in Philadelphia with [my wife] in December 24, 1999. And we we went to this mosque in Philly, and I just had such a strong reaction to the prayer. And I was really emotionally - I felt really grounded at that time. And so to be in this prayer and the imam is doing the prayer in Arabic and I don't understand a word of Arabic but I just remember these tears just coming down my face and it just really connecting to my spirit in a way that felt like I needed to pay attention to that.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“My connection to music is so strong. I cling to it. I vibe out to it. I release stress to it. Music is really always close to me. It's really present in my work in terms of how I relate to characters is through rhythm and sound, even in their speech.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“I think my mom gave me the borders, the - gave me a very clear understanding of what the perimeter was. And I had to find my fun within those boundaries.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“Because on that watch list, they would be like, yeah, your name - they told me like, yeah, your name matches the name of a terrorist or someone that they're watching. I was just like, what terrorist is running around with a Hebrew first name and a Muslim - Arabic last - I'm like, who's that guy?”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“I was fortunately able to avoid getting into any trouble with police. There was - I remember I was 12, and I did something really (laughter) - a couple of friends, Cinco de Mayo - we were off school, and we saw some people looking like they were having a party. And we had a little bit too much time on our hands, and so we figured, as kids, a great idea would be to throw some things over the fence and hit all these people with stuff, like eggs and everything.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“I remember after 9/11, I started - I was working quite a bit in Vancouver. And then I realized I would go to catch my flight, and it would take me like 20 minutes to get cleared to fly, like, every time. I'm like, what is going on?”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“Gay, straight - whatever - adolescents in high school and coming out of junior high, that's such a difficult, awkward period and kids can be so cruel and mean.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“The freedom that I wanted as a kid would - probably would not have been good for me and not in the way in which I wanted it.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“I know there were periods of times where I didn't feel understood, and there were very few people around me that I felt like they really got me. There was one person who was sort of the one in my life that really got me.In general, I felt a little bit on the outside and not totally included. There was a period of time when we were moving around a lot. So I couldn't really hold on to a certain set of friends. And so that was a little bit difficult.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“It felt, like, so far from - or far enough from the reality of things that we can enjoy it purely as entertainment. And now it feels a little bit too in alignment, honestly, but yeah - so we'll see how season five [House of Cards] goes over there.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“I grew up in church. My mom's a minister, and my grandmother was an ordained minister. I was always very mindful of the presence of a greater being I call God.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“[Crack epidemic] definitely has impacted folks in my family, most definitely. I think that's true for most, if not all people, regardless of color, that grew up in and around areas that were closer to the nucleus of the crack epidemic.If you look at Baltimore or D.C., Detroit, Chicago, Oakland, like, Los Angeles.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“Between the two [parents], it was a really unique upbringing, I think, especially for where I was from.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“I never wanted to accept that. And so I have always fought against that in some way, shape or form and had - I've had people who have supported trying to get me in for things that were beyond the character description.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“So many Muslims would tell you that they felt like that you had to - you fold it into yourself because people were looking at you and recognizing you as being the culprit even though, look, I'm American. I don't believe that the teachings of Islam justified those actions.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“Anyone who grew up in the crack era - you know, I grew up in that era - knew that there were also people out - and there are still guys to this day that are out there, you know, obviously drug dealing - but those were the guys who had access and had money. And some of those guys felt responsible to create opportunity for other people and were also aware of the dangers of their work and often aren't really the ones that are encouraging kids to get into drug dealing.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“I had gone to - that was my second time going to the mosque. And then at that time we met [with my wife], she was Muslim and - but was at a point where - because her father is an imam and her mother, though, is a convert, but she was basically raised Muslim. And she was at that point where she was deciding or trying to come to terms with her own relationship with Islam and how to embrace that for herself. So I was sort of trying to come walk toward it.”
-- Mahershala Ali -
“I had read some books on the Baha'i Faith. I had read - I was looking into Buddhism and trying to understand sort of the agnostic approach, so there was just a bunch of stuff I was just looking at.”
-- Mahershala Ali
You may also like:
-
Alfre Woodard
Film actress -
Constance Zimmer
Actress -
Gary Ross
Film director -
Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Film actress -
Jacqueline McKenzie
Actress -
Janelle Monae
Musician -
Joel Gretsch
Actor -
Kevin Spacey
Actor -
Laura Mennell
Actress -
Megalyn Echikunwoke
Actress -
Molly Parker
Actress -
Naomie Harris
Actress -
Patina Miller
Actress -
Robin Wright
Actress -
Theo Rossi
Actor -
Andre Holland
Actor -
Azita Ghanizada
Actress -
Beau Willimon
Playwright -
Laura Allen
Actress -
Mike Colter
Actor
