Malachi Kirby Quotes

I've always been fascinated by family ancestry.

I've known where my heritage is from all along.

I was so hungry to learn my history, to really know who I was.

I never, by any regard, ever denied any part of my family roots.

My mother was from West Bromwich; my grandfather was Pakistani. I had an aunt who started trying to trace the family tree and stopped when she saw what turned up.

We all need a past - that's where our sense of identity comes from.

I know my father and my mother, but beyond that I cannot go. My ancestry is blurred.

You want to try to find your heritage.

I've always known that my father's father and grandfather and grandmother were from Mexico. I've never denied it. I've always said it.

For a while, I thought a lot about lineage. Where do I belong? Who am I standing next to?

Roots are not in landscape or a country, or a people, they are inside you.

I discovered that there is Indian blood in my ancestry on my father's side - a fact that had not been talked about in my family. No wonder I've often been cast in exotic roles - Indian princesses, Russian revolutionaries, Algerians, Gypsies and Greeks.

I love many places to which I have no connection, but identifying an ancestor, or someone I think is an ancestor, has taken me to places I'd never have gone to otherwise.

How do we know who we are if we don’t know where we’ve been?

As you get older, you get more... genealogical.

For Africa to me... is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.

My dad's family comes from the North, and my mother's family comes from somewhere around Carmarthenshire.

Returning to your family and where you came from, and your history... this is what makes you strong. It's not looking out that's going to do that - it's looking in.

I was researching my family tree, and I was deeply hoping I was going to turn out to be Eastern European, but I'm not.

Blue Ivy can say she knows who her great-great-great-great-grandfather is. How many people can say that?

My roots go back to West Africa, but my last name is Kirby, which is not an African name.

I really appreciate the British part of my family.

I'm certainly proud to be Cuban American, and it's a fantastic opportunity for anybody - regardless of their ethnicity or nationality. It does carry a measure or pride to know where you're from and to know what your roots are.

I'm very aware of my own background. I'm Irish, French, and then a little bit of everything else thrown in, ranging from German to Native American. We're talking about tiny drops of blood.

My African roots made me what I am today. They're the reason I exist at all.