John Boyega Quotes

I met Arthur Ashe a few times. I know how important education was to him.

The idea of being able to serve as an example, based upon how to process, how to think, how to realize our own dreams, we can pass that down to our children.

I always wanted to go to Sundance.

Steve Jobs was a great friend as well as a trusted advisor. His legacy will extend far beyond the products he created or the businesses he built. It will be the millions of people he inspired, the lives he changed, and the culture he defined.

It still feels like an honor to bring something [on Sundance].

I love indie movies. I think that independent cinema is where it's at and where a lot of trends begin. It's where new filmmakers are breaking through.

The innovative process is a fragile one, dependent on a complex, often messy interplay of imagination, competition, and exchange. Curbing new ideas hurts not only individual creators but the audience for which they create and the posterity that inherits their legacy.

I grew up thinking there was something called 'independent film,' which I wouldn't necessarily have had access to if there wasn't Sundance.

I don't follow trends. I'm a trendsetter. I represent all the younger generations; fly kids, creative kids - they look up to me. I got a program that's called ROAR. I go to all high schools everywhere we go, and I talk to all the kids, and I give away 30-35 tickets and passes to the kids doing good in school. Stuff like that means a lot to me.

I look at the careers of people I'm standing on the shoulders of. People like Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., and Sarah Vaughan. These are icons I wanted to emulate, and I feel like they've been holding me up for quite a long time.

I have to continue to grow and take it to another level so the next generation has something to follow.

By deciding to live our lives based on solid values and unwavering truth, we can leave a legacy for the young men and boys who want nothing more than to follow in our footsteps.

Gerald Wilson was one of my mentors: he was in his nineties before he passed and, literally, every time I saw him, he'd be like, 'Man, Kamasi, I've got this new thing! Nobody ever heard anything like this before!' It's amazing hanging out with somebody that was born in 1918.

The leadership group I had to follow is very easy to walk in their footsteps and try to be like them. You try and set that same example for the guys coming up.

I'm glad I'm setting an example for the younger generation so in the future they can say, 'Look how long E-40's rap career was. Look how long he stayed relevant.'

My role model was Sachin Tendulkar as a kid. I feel very proud that I have been able to follow his footsteps and become a UNICEF ambassador like him.

You can see things growing up, be inspired by things. Just because they're not around anymore doesn't mean that you can't take those inspirations and bring them to life and bring them to the next generation.

I'm so grateful to be part of the Sundance family.

You don't create legends out of other legends.

Spike Lee's been doing it for a long time now. We're all standing on his shoulders.

The films that are coming out of SXSW are incredible, and they should get the same bids that films at Sundance are getting.

I was sponsored to go to the U.S. and became a Black Eyed Peas, and now I'm paying it forward and helping other children like me.

The past is always recycled. I'm just taking what the people I looked up to did and translating it for my generation.

I'm honored to be asked by Stephanie Allain - whom I've long admired - to add to the scope of my programming purview at Film Independent. I salute David Ansen for his work with the festival and look forward to continuing to follow his example.

Education is the tool. Even if we haven't directly instructed a session, I think Wu-Tang has been an instructor of education to anyone who has been a fan, anyone who has supported our movement, whether its been from buying a Wu-Tang CD or coming to see a show.