Mahershala Ali Quotes

"I always hope to be a better person tomorrow than today."

"Understand that we are all co-creators of our respective destinies."

"My father, Phillip Gilmore, was very talented. He was getting seriously into dancing. He was on 'Soul Train' and won $2,500. But the Bay Area was too small for him. I don't think he had the space to do what he needed to do."

"Social media has colonized what was once a sacred space occupied by emptiness: the space reserved for thought and creativity."

"Your life, your circumstances change, and you have to continue to grow as a person, and once you have means and opportunity, you have to make different choices to protect what you have."

"As young people, you want to see people who in some way look like you to some degree, because it makes it a little easier for you to aspire to take on the qualities of those people."

"Cultures and races are mixing in a very organic way in the world, and that should be reflected in film and television."

"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. That's what I'm still working on, having done this for 20 years now."

"One thing that the audience, and perhaps critics, aren't aware of is that, especially in a film like 'Moonlight,' you always shoot a lot more footage than makes the cut of the film."

"I just love what Nicholas Britell did with 'Moonlight.'"

"Marvel has such a huge slice of the pie."

"I prayed every day of my life, and that was instilled in me as a kid, and as I've gotten older, that's just matured in me."

"'Mahershala' is my nickname."

"I have had that same experience where there are several people who have come up in my life at the right time and have made critical contributions to how I see the world and how I see myself."

"At that moment in time when we feel like the other, we were not the person embraced, not one of the cool kids, not in the club - when you're that person, it makes you feel smaller, and when they persecute you as a result, that's a difficult position to be in."

"Who is that person that comes around and says, 'You are OK, you are worthy, you are special?' That makes all the difference in the world for many of us. Those are the people we appreciate the most."

"My friends in college, several of whom are still my closest companions, would tell you that I was almost obsessed with becoming - fixated on creating - the future that I envisioned for myself: one of expanding to know my fullest self, which I have in no way achieved."

"In my humble opinion, the ages 22 to about 27 are the most critical years of your adult life. It's your time to gestate in the cocoon of becoming."

"I do believe that there are creative chakras or different sorts of energy centers."

"I found myself sort of becoming a character actor, though I don't know if that would be my natural makeup."

"I haven't gotten to do the leading man thing, so I would love to do that!"

"People are really paying attention to the comic-book genre, and there's a lot of time and attention being invested in these projects with a wonderful sense of quality control."

"Cottonmouth is the result of having to react to his circumstances. He had to, in some ways, take control of the situation and own his circumstances. But as a result of that, he became a person he didn't intend to become."

"I was a sports kid."

"I really enjoyed working with Mariah, Alfre Woodward's character, because she's a wonderful actor, and I felt we had a natural chemistry that was reflective of real family members."

"It's still amazing, but when I was growing up, Harlem was the Mecca of black culture. I was so inspired by it, the aspirational feeling you'd get spending time there. Experiences that were really specific to that place."

"To get to play someone who was in some capacity the King of Harlem, that meant something to me. Deep within my bones. I was inspired by the energy that I knew to be a real thing."

"What you see in 'Daredevil' and 'Jessica Jones' isn't the Hell's Kitchen of today; it's a version of what it was like."

"I don't really compare any of the characters I play; I try to go into them being very open to what the characters can offer and what I can bring to them and then bring a being to life."

"It's about very talented writers, directors, producers, and actors being in a position for their projects to be supported, but there's just not enough black projects being made."