Ruth Negga Quotes

I become very territorial about my identity because it's been hijacked by so many people with their own projections.

It's funny: people who meet me say, 'I thought you'd be different.' But I'm still the same guy.

I never tried to emulate that New York rap style. What I do is a quasi rap. It's a honky rap, not a black rap. I find it puzzling that so many people have assumed I'm black.

People can have so many ill-conceived ideas about me based on the parts that I play. I've had guys, when I've been single, come out of the woodwork to date me and I've found out very quickly that they were expecting some kind of whirlwind, some dramatic crazy person - and that's just not me.

I understand people have preconceived notions of who I am or what I do.

The biggest misconception people have about me is that I'm stupid.

A lot of people tell me, once they get to know me, that they're surprised that I'm nothing like they think I'll be.

My reality is the misconceptions about me.

I think for such a long time people had this misconception of who I was and what I was about.

I've run into people who say, 'I know what you're like: You're a Boston guy.' That's so weird. This person who doesn't know anything about me thinks they know a lot because of the city I grew up in, which, to me, is a meaningless label. There are all kinds of people from Boston.

I think people always misjudge me.

I think people have a warped sense of who I am.

I haven't changed, but people's perception changed.

People who think they know me would be surprised that my whole life doesn't revolve around sex.

You might see someone with dreadlocks and label them a hippie in your head, but that doesn't mean they think of themselves that way. A lot of people look at me and see I have a beard and shaggy hair, and think I'm a hippie. I'm not a hippie, and I'm not not a hippie. I don't know what the f**k I am.

We hear a lot about identity theft when someone takes your wallet and pretends to be you and uses your credit cards. But the more serious identity theft is to get swallowed up in other people's definition of you.

I've only ever been mistaken for myself. People draw a lot of comparisons to all of the round-faced, mustached men of entertainment that make me cringe and sick to my stomach about how the world really sees me and they're right.

How wrong to think I was anyone else, like thinking grass stains make you a beautiful view, like getting kissed makes you kissable, like feeling warm makes you coffee, like liking movies makes you a director. How utterly incorrect to think it any other way, a box of crap is treasures, a boy smiling means it, a gentle moment is a life improved.

Maybe I’d like to be defined by what I am.

Ever since I was a child, folks have thought they had me pegged, because of the way I am, the way I talk. And they're always wrong.

I have no issues with my identity.

I think in some ways we have allowed other people to set the agenda. Other people to define who we are.

In a way, you kind of get caught up in whatever image of yourself you think is out there.

Sometimes people mistake the way I talk for what I am thinking.

People look at me, they know I've appeared in costume dramas and they automatically assume I must be a Tory, I must be a certain type of person.