Kelela Mizanekristos (Kelela) Quotes
I do like things the way that I like them. But I'm trying not to be - I don't wanna be that way. I'm not a control freak; I wanna protect my agency. It's a weird question as a black woman.

Quotes to Explore
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From the day of its birth, the anomaly of slavery plagued a nation which asserted the equality of all men, and sought to derive powers of government from the consent of the governed. Within sound of the voices of those who said this lived more than half a million black slaves, forming nearly one-fifth of the population of a new nation.
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People get TV deals by doing something in their grandmother's basement. It is definitely the wave. Everybody is trying to do all that stuff. I mean, the Internet is the only reason that I've gotten work is because I've somehow created a line and people have seen it. And then I've been asked to auditions.
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Because of where I come from, I never thought I'd see in my life a black candidate running for President.
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One of my personal plights in this business is about playing 'The Sassy Black Girl.'
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There is no doubt that breath control is the means for mind control because the mind, like breath, is a part of air; because the nature of mobility is common to both; because the place of origin is the same for both; and because when one of them is controlled, the other gets controlled.
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I love to drive in the Black Hills of Wyoming and South Dakota with Mount Rushmore as the central stop.
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As authors, most - most authors, our art is portraying the human condition. Trying to show you what it's like to be somebody else, trying to make you feel for somebody else. That means you have to have a high degree of empathy.
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I've been writing about my boyhood, when I was a little kid back on my grandfather's farm where we didn't know about black widow spiders or all that stuff. But writing about that is so easy.
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I am a control freak. I am very hands on and pay attention to details.
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When the gun lobby fights gun-control legislation, its logic is clear: it does not like laws that prevent people from owning or using guns.
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All these police treating our people wrong, man. Black lives matter, but we got fans of all different colors, so all lives matter.
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I have enjoyed every call. The ones involving direct contact with people have been most rewarding.
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We were in the heart of the ghetto in Chicago during the Depression, and every block - it was probably the biggest black ghetto in America - every block also is the spawning ground practically for every gangster, black and white, in America too.
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Serial killers kill for the power and control they experience during the murders and for the added ego boost they get in the aftermath from community fears, media coverage, and the police investigations.
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I'm not familiar particularly with Hillary Clinton's neighborhood, but I wish people were a little bit more curious about what we call privilege and about why it's there. Black people in this country have no choice but to be curious. We have to know. I wish folks would do a little bit more investigation.
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However, I don't feel the world is looking over my shoulder when I am working - I never think about this at all. What I think about is trying to make my work pure, and if it is pure then it can be accessible. It is quite straight forward really.
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I think I didn't know whether I wanted to keep acting deep into my career. I kept trying to see if I would be able to do it well enough to make that part of my destiny or part of what I was supposed to do.
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The only crime I'm guilty of is being a young black woman.
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I think a lot about the private emotions of black people - what we feel and yet is rarely publicly expressed.
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I went to Walter Reed hospital a couple of times to visit wounded soldiers, kids with no legs and one arm. You start to question some things.
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I remember all the stages in my career where I almost didn't have enough confidence to try for something, almost didn't have the guts to follow something I was excited about doing, because I didn't know anyone else who'd done it, or other people made me question it.
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I've learned a huge amount because I've been tested and, more importantly, I've been trusted.
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I do like things the way that I like them. But I'm trying not to be - I don't wanna be that way. I'm not a control freak; I wanna protect my agency. It's a weird question as a black woman.