Gabourey Sidibe
I'm really, really interested in the job of acting. I can really care less about being famous. I'm more about the work, and 'The Big C' was amazing, so I wanted to be a part of it.Collection: Famous
Your body is your temple, it's your home, and you must decorate it.Collection: Home
I learned to love myself, because I sleep with myself every night and I wake up with myself every morning, and if I don't like myself, there's no reason to even live the life.Collection: Morning
I didn't want to be an actress at all, or famous even. I certainly enjoy acting now, absolutely. Time will tell whether or not I enjoy fame.Collection: Famous
I have a nice smile, pretty lips, and big round cheeks. They help me look like a teenager.Collection: Smile
I'm not a big fan of doing what my mother wants me to do, like any daughter.
One day I decided that I was beautiful, and so I carried out my life as if I was a beautiful girl. I wear colors that I really like, I wear makeup that makes me feel pretty, and it really helps. It doesn't have anything to do with how the world perceives you. What matters is what you see.
I certainly used to wish that I was skinny, lighter-skinned, with long, pretty hair. But only because I used to get made fun of for being the absolute opposite. I didn't see all of that stuff as the American Dream. I just wanted to look normal. Now that I'm older, I really do feel like I am a beautiful girl.
I'm just a girl from Harlem who ended up in the right place at the right time.
I don't fixate on other people's opinions of my body.
My Plan A was to be a psychologist. I thought I would be a receptionist. I'm always middle of the road and very normal. I've always wanted a normal life, and this is what I got.
Being an actress wasn't a plan at all, so what's happened to me is very strange. Life isn't very normal, even though I'm still very much a normal girl. I ride the subway, I ride the bus, and all of that.
The thing about Precious, she's so far from a Hollywood character. She's so honest and real, I definitely felt like I knew her.
I think people look at me and don't expect much. Even though, I expect a whole lot.
Precious, she gets hit by life so many different ways and so many times, but she doesn't yield to it. She continues to get up and she continues to struggle for a better life.
All my life, people have made fun of the way I speak. I guess because a lot of my vocabulary is made up of things that other people say. I started making fun of them and imitating them and now that's how I speak.
I love the way I look. I'm fine with it. And if my body changes, I'll be fine with that.
I used to watch 'Coming to America' every day after school. I have full-on long-running inside jokes with friends and family about different scenes in that movie alone. Also, my brother and I loved 'The Golden Child,' so, yeah: I was a huge fan of Eddie Murphy growing up.
Well, I'm certainly glad that I was nominated for an Oscar. There is certainly a respect that comes with that nod. Also, a compliment that comes with it, too. Not that I really know what I'm doing. In a lot of ways I feel like some child on set, or like a kid that snuck in the back door.
I've grown up with girls that are like Precious. I've grown up with people that are like everyone that I read about in that book. And so years later, when I was given the role, I just felt a huge responsibility to show the reality of that situation and to show that we're not making it up.
While 'Precious' isn't a real person, it's someone's story, and it's too many peoples' story.
One of my favorite - well, my favorite, favorite, absolute favorite event to go to is Alfre Woodard has a party that I call the blacktress party. It's, like, black actresses that either have been nominated for an Oscar or should have been, and it sort of is just a night where we all get in a room and we get to celebrate each other.
Hollywood, that whole industry, is a lot like a really small town. You bump into the same people all the time. I think Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon can be played with anyone and everyone in Hollywood.
Well, I was a big fan of the book and therein a huge fan of the girl Precious. And so I felt like I knew this girl. I felt like I'd grown up alongside her. I felt like she was in my family. She was my friend and she was like people I didn't want to be friends with.
When it's time to film and to actually take on the role of Precious, I felt an immense responsibility to do it justice.
It's so weird to turn on a switch and be the role model for all women, for all African-Americans. That doesn't happen that easily. It just doesn't. And so I don't act up in public and I don't do anything weird - because my sisters are watching me, not because the world is watching me.
Mo'Nique is so full of love. I've been describing her as the tree in 'Pocahontas.' She's so wise and loving. She is just everything.
I have a birthmark on the inside of my left knee that resembles an upside-down sea horse.
I can flip my tongue over. Only one in 10,000 people can. I learned that at Ripley's Believe It or Not!
I could have easily never worked again after 'Precious.' I could be back at my receptionist job and no one would be surprised, but I'm having a very crazy little career that no one thought would happen. Although that was never the plan.
One of my personal plights in this business is about playing 'The Sassy Black Girl.'
If I hadn't been told I was garbage, I wouldn't have learned how to show people I'm talented. And if everyone had always laughed at my jokes, I wouldn't have figured out how to be so funny. If they hadn't told me I was ugly, I never would have searched for my beauty. And if they hadn't tried to break me down, I wouldn't know that I'm unbreakable.Collection: Funny
It doesn't have anything to do with how the world perceives you. What matters is what you see.Collection: What Matters
Personally, it’s rude. You got three kids with the lady, she just did 17 years for you and you’re not gonna leave your...whatever!Collection: Kids
People always ask me, 'You have so much confidence. Where did that come from?'. It came from me. One day I decided that I was beautiful, and so I carried out my life as if I was a beautiful girl. I wear colors that I really like, I wear makeup that makes me feel pretty, and it really helps. It doesn't have anything to do with how the world perceives you. What matters is what you see.Collection: Beautiful
If they hadn’t tried to break me down, I wouldn’t know that I’m unbreakable.Collection: Inner Strength
I am the only consistent person in my life and so I better like myself, and I better love myself. And I really better know that I'm as beautiful as anyone else.Collection: Beautiful
I don't think my brand of self-confidence and self-assuredness can come from an outside source. It's got to come from me.Collection: Self Confidence
My beauty is dark chocolate and it's delicious and it's sweet.Collection: Sweet
I can't quite say that I was raised Muslim, but I remember up until 5 or so I would pray, you know, with my dad. And it's actually a beautiful practice. It's giving of yourself to a higher power - no matter what you call that higher power. Living your life as close to what you think that higher power wants you to be is a really powerful thing.Collection: Beautiful
One day I decided that I was beautiful, and so I carried out my life as if I was a beautiful girl.Collection: Beautiful
One day I had to sit down with myself and decide that I loved myself no matter what my body looked like and what other people thought about my body. I got tired of hating myself.Collection: Beauty
I don't know any teenager with a positive attitude.Collection: Attitude
I live my life because I dare. I dare to show up when everyone else might hide their faces and hide their bodies in shame.Collection: Body
I'm really, really happy with what I do for a living. I mean, that's what I consider work, like being on set, bringing a character to life and, you know, working with other actors and directors and stuff.Collection: Character
I hate yoga so much. Like, if yoga was a person, I'd stab them.Collection: Hate
My goal was just to live a good life that I was happy with. And I wasn't exactly sure that that meant being the star of a movie.Collection: Good Life
Just relax. When I was younger, I made myself the victim of catastrophic thinking. Anything that went wrong was the end of the world. But as I've gotten older, I've learned to stop myself and say, 'Hey babe, calm down. Tomorrow there will be sun.'Collection: Thinking
Most of my life, I wanted to be a therapist, but then I just decided that I didn't want to be in charge of giving people advice. I want to know everything there is to know about psychology. But a therapist? No.Collection: People
People want to know everyone for a lot of different reasons. It doesn't have to be anything as big as an Oscar nomination. It could be a brand new job. People see their opportunity. And, when you're winning, everyone loves a winner.Collection: Jobs