Quotes

When work ends, I'd rather just be seen as Daniel - normal.

If I was at school and one of my friends said something funny, I'd write it down in a notebook and take it to the writers meetings. I never told my friends about it. I just thought I could incorporate stuff that was true to life.

Racism is like a horror movie. Black kids die because of racism. I don't know what's more horrifying than that.

Writing can be really lonely, and I find that bit difficult. I'd rather be around my people, getting ideas.

I go to music festivals, and people want to talk to me about racism. I'm like, 'Bro, I'm trying to have fun!'

Racism kills people. It kills people!

Life ain't a drama. And life isn't just a comedy. Life is sometimes horrifying. Life is science-fiction. There are all elements and faculties that we navigate, so I just expect a script to reflect that. As long as it's truthful. I think genre-bending is just being honest.

There's a lot of black men running around with crazy trauma scars, and they should be going to therapy. They should be sitting down and talking to people. But they can't. If you've got the armor of being a man, and the armor of being a black man, that hyper-masculine thing can make those scars deeper.

I think the traditional stereotypes are loaded in institutional racism.

In the real world, there's probably nothing more horrifying than racism. Living racism is a horrifying experience. And then, having to normalize it and internalize it.

Whenever I'm in a film that's from a perspective that is dominant within western culture... I'm always trying to prove myself. When it's from a black perspective, I don't have to - they get it.

People are decisions and actions.

What's great about 'Skins' is that the characters are exactly like people around you.

Some black women hug me and walk away. A lot of black men talk about dating white women and how they've been there, too. People open up about their racial experiences. I feel like I'm a walking therapy session. It's quite intense. But it means a lot to people.

Loads of stuff that I've done has always had a hint of comedy. I did this show called 'Psychoville' that's a horror-comedy. Because I just think that's what life's like.

I'm dark-skinned. When I'm around black people, I'm made to feel 'other' because I'm dark-skinned. I've had to wrestle with that, with people going, 'You're too black.' Then I come to America, and they say, 'You're not black enough.'

Usually I do a job, and, like, two weeks later, it disappears and is replaced with something else, but 'Get Out' kept growing and growing and growing, and it keeps taking me to rooms I could never get in before.

I feel very appreciative of my mum, my girl, my family, my friends.

I learned so much on 'Sicario' and working with that group of actors, where there was the audacity, the confidence, to do nothing.

Everything men do is for women.

I feel like racism's more pronounced in America.

I did a play, back in the day, called 'Sucker Punch,' and it meant so much for me. I was 21. And I went, 'I just want to do work like that.' Stuff I believe in. And when I have compromised, I've never really felt good about it.

Having something that makes money changes everything. I'm from England, and it's very much about credibility there. And yeah, it is about that. But the money can change things. And so you understand it's a business.

'Sicario' was a lot of improvisation.

I think the 'sunken place' - that term is what I hear when I'm just casually living my life. People say it around me. Not because they're around me; they're saying it because it articulated a state of mind. Lil Wayne's rapped about it.

A lot of times, the people who have the confidence to say, 'I don't know what the rules are, so I'm just going to do what I want,' are the most exciting people.

Donae'o is too cold; he's been dropping bangers since 2000.

Giggs is the realest.

Nas is such a touchstone in my world.

The beauty of any artwork is that it becomes the person that's watching it: What do you take out of it?

All I'm doing is being in films that I would watch if I wasn't in this industry.

I love being black.

What I find really exciting is stories from a different viewpoint.

I resent that I have to prove that I'm black.

Big up Samuel L. Jackson, because here's a guy who has broken down doors.

I think diverse stories are just stories. I don't think 'diverse' is an add-on package. Things that are not diverse are weird because that's not accurate.

I find it hard to watch a lot of the kind of things I'm doing before doing it. I don't think it's helpful for me. It makes me too aware.

What you want to do is make people talk, start a conversation.

Really, I have no idea how I'm perceived in the industry.

Racism isn't just in America... Alienation is felt worldwide in different capacities.

I hope people listen to black people more. You'd be surprised how little people listen to black people when it comes to racial issues. It's weird.

I didn't take writing seriously at first - I didn't think I could do it. When I did, I fell in love with it. But writing is very lonely.

'Sucker Punch' was so demanding, it scared me a bit.

I love comedy. I don't think there's enough comedy on stage.

I go to Uganda, I can't speak the language. In India, I'm black. In the black community, I'm dark-skinned. In America, I'm British.

'The Fades' is its own world. If you try and link it to some religion, you have people going, 'Oh, that's not right,' with their Bible open. Let's just chuck some imagination at it.

Being young, working class, and black, everything you do is policed. If someone hits you and you hit back, you are aggressive. If you cry, you are weak. You are kind of always pretending to be something.

Even people who say that black people are minorities, there are a billion black people in the world. A billion white people. What part of that is a minority? If you separate yourself, then maybe. But I see black people as one man. When I see people beaten on the streets of America, that hurts me. I feel that.

I don't think you become a name with just one job.

I just want to tell black stories.