Naomie Harris Quotes

It's more instinctive to want revenge, but we are also capable of immense amounts of forgiveness and love and a compassion that extends even to those who have brutalized us.

I'm totally in love with Jane Austen and have always been in love with Jane Austen. I did my dissertation at university on black people in eighteenth-century Britain - so I'd love to do a Jane Austen-esque film but with black people.

I'd like to believe that I would be able to give in the same way Mandela did, but in reality, I don't know whether that is true. It is much more likely that I would be left with an immense sense of injustice and immense desire for revenge.

I have many different sides; I can be the life and soul of the party - or a wallflower.

When you film in Africa, it's almost like a character in and of itself because it is so beautiful and has this special magic that I've never experienced anywhere else. There is something so incredibly beautiful about the light ...

Mandela is this extraordinary individual who can inspire the world. Instead of wanting revenge after being brutalized, he showed the world how to forgive.

When you go somewhere like Kenya and you see how the children don't have pencils and pens, and all of these things are considered luxuries, and what a privilege they see education as and how hungry they are to learn, I wanted to give my brother and sister long lectures. That definitely stayed with me.

I started acting when I was seven. And I went to a local drama school which is very well-known in London. Because of that, I started getting jobs, and I worked all the time as a child, pretty much non-stop.

I am always interested in affecting people in some way, making them think about particular areas of history that they have never thought about or that they may have thought about in one way and then changing their view.

People have very strong opinions about how their national icons should be played.

Actors need steely determination. It's a tough profession with plenty of knocks along the way. You have to be very determined and never take 'no' for an answer.

There are certain expectations that are put on you as a child actor, but mainly it's just turn up and say your lines with a lot of energy and a cute smile.

Make-up is an extension of your clothes.

You don't need to follow trends to be stylish.

I like to believe that we all pray to the same god.

I really, really love Daniel Craig as Bond.

My mum believes in me almost more than I believe in myself.

Powerful women are the most interesting to play.

As a society we should be encouraging people out of the debt-culture mindset, not promoting it.

As an artist, I am interested in telling stories that haven't been told before, stories that are going to affect people, and also stories that shine light on areas of history that haven't had light shined on them before.

I think there's nothing more amazing than helping people every day.

Getting to travel around the world and go to glamorous locations is certainly not what I had as a kid.

I wanted to play roles which offered new ways of viewing black women and black people in general- and I have done that. And I have always, whether I needed to pay the rent or not, I've always turned down roles which I thought were stereotypical. And so when I look at my body of work in that respect, I am really happy. Because I feel my work does say something positive and that was what I always set out to do.

You don't want to just preach to people; you want to get them emotionally involved, and I think you do that with a wonderful human story about one person's struggle.

It is great to be a part of big-budget movies, but it is harder to feel like you are contributing, in the sense that it has such big machinery behind it.

Education opens the door to everything in terms of having a career and an impact on society and not being a slave to your job, really.

Be open and honest, but perceptive to your boss's situation. That's my advice to graduates worried about working with a new boss.

It's true about the eyes being the window to the soul. Your face can be etched with worry, and twisted by ageing, but the eyes tell the true story of who you are.

To have the kind of success I have had is really amazing, and I am incredibly grateful.

I was brought up in Britain, and I'm very proud of my Britishness and my culture.

I was out on the shooting range twice a week [for Skyfall]. I worked out with a personal trainer for two hours a day, five days a week. So, it was quite demanding!

In some ways, except that in that movie [Skyfall] I was mostly screaming and running away from the bad guys, whereas in this one I'm generally jumping into the action and fighting with them. So, yeah, it was somewhat similar, but also very different.

I try to be upbeat. I read this book which tells you to write down everything that you're grateful for each day. Now I'm constantly noticing all the little things that make me joyful.

If you educate children, then they are capable of so much - you empower them, you give them choices, and you enable them to create the lives that they dream for themselves.

I've never been that person who wants a Rolls Royce or wants to live in a mansion or what have you.

We eat food all the time and don't really understand what goes into something like bread.

One of the saddest aspects for me about filming in South Africa was that the real inequalities are still very much in place - and those are economic inequalities.

I think the role of the Bond woman has changed so much over the years that it now doesn't follow a typical archetypical view. Before, it was very much a beautiful woman who didn't contribute much and who usually ended up getting killed or was arm candy for Bond. But now the women in a Bond movie have so much more to offer.

When I have finished a job, done all the promotion, and it's been received well. Then I can allow myself the luxury of a break, and chilling out with my family and friends, and taking a nice break knowing I've done a good job.

Hollywood 'friends' are only after one thing. They're looking out for the next big thing, and they don't want to miss out on you just in case.

I don't think I have the assets to play the more traditional Bond Girl.

I was really nervous, because I was certain it was going to be bigger than anything I'd ever done before [Skyfall]. But I was relieved when I actually discovered that there was a family atmosphere on the set, with a brother-sister team, Barbara [Broccoli] and Michael [Wilson] running it all.

I never ever thought that I would be in a Bond film, ever, which is weird because I grew up loving these amazing movies.

I would never wear anything too revealing. I'm not a fan of dresses where you look nude ... I think that looks a bit desperate.

I don't why I was bullied. I was quite shy and skinny. Very nerdy, very bookwormish. I think I was just a target.

I'm incredibly impatient; I'd like to be less so, and more content with the now.

I'm not the greatest driver. I don't know if I'll ever master the art.

Kids should be naughty and go through that rebellious phase I didn't have.

I was too much of an innocent when I went to university.

[I like to cook] Shepherd's pie, which is a classic British dish. But my version reflects my Jamaican roots, because I add jerk to it as well.

I really like Roland Moret, Alexander McQueen and Marios Schwab, a young British designer.

Only do acting, if you don't want to do anything else. And know that it's a tough journey with a lot of rejection along the way. You have to have a lot of self-belief.

I cry at random things, like a flower, or someone giving me a present, or my sister giving me a nice hug.

I'm absolutely loving being part of Bondiana, and that not only am I a Bond girl, but I get to be an agent as well.

People are already describing it [Skyfall] as the best Bond flick ever, and I really think it will be.