Mahershala Ali Quotes

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Mahershala Ali

Profession : Actor

Birth : February 16, 1974

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.

Mahershala Ali

'Moonlight' is a project that resonated with me more than anything else. I wouldn't have done 'Luke Cage' if they hadn't made time for 'Moonlight.'

Mahershala Ali

My parents were in high school when I was born. My mom was 16, my dad was 17. They were kids, at the very beginning of coming into their own and finding themselves.

Mahershala Ali

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

Mahershala Ali

Oakland, by far, is really gorgeous; it still has these pockets that are really dangerous. Certain things are kind of normal. I think kids out there can be tested in a way where his right of passage ties into a bit of violence and how that has become these markers in masculinity and you being kind of validated after having to pass through things.

Mahershala Ali

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

Mahershala Ali

I think if you have any desire to be a leading man or to really carry some of these stories, there's this relationship that has to be cultivated with an audience. People have to be able to say your name.

Mahershala Ali

It's a lot of wonderful things about the Bay area and Oakland that I absolutely love. I wouldn't change being from there by any stretch.

Mahershala Ali

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

Mahershala Ali

If you convert to Islam after a couple of decades of being a black man in the U.S., the discrimination you receive as a Muslim doesn't feel like a shock.

Mahershala Ali

I have to say goodbye to things in order to take on bigger things that I've always wanted to do.

Mahershala Ali

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.

Mahershala Ali

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.

Mahershala Ali

'Mahershala' is my nickname.

Mahershala Ali

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.

Mahershala Ali

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.

Mahershala Ali

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.

Mahershala Ali

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.

Mahershala Ali

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

Mahershala Ali

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.

Mahershala Ali