Top 70 Yvonne Orji Quotes

New York is a walking city, so you’ll be dressed to the nines, and you’ll go out, and you feel more special and more pretty because more people acknowledge you.

I would never do something I’m uncomfortable with.

I love a dark brown blush, like brown on brown.

My actual desire is to be able to comfortably walk out of my house without any makeup on and feel as beautiful as I do when my makeup artist beats my face.

I grew up Catholic, so I had a more traditional relationship with religion.

People are surprised I do comedy! And I’m like, ‘Guys, that’s all I have been doing. For, like, forever.’

There’s a lot of negative speak about what it means to be an immigrant. I’m like, ‘OK, I don’t know where that came from.’ We do the dirty jobs. We do the good jobs. We get the job done.

To not have the wherewithal to give fully to a relationship bothered me.

Don’t take it personally if you’re met with opposition. Work hard anyway.

Comedy’s the ultimate pill that helps the really hard truths and hard facts go down, right?

What you see on TV is what you believe you can be.

I took organic chemistry, and I got my first-ever F. I ended up going to summer school, and the whole time, I’m thinking, ‘I am not good at sciences.’

When something is not great, I’m not going to eat it. It’s not enough to just get full. It’s like, how does this make you feel?

I came to America when I was six. In true African form, my parents wanted me to be a doctor or lawyer or engineer.

A lot of times, especially in the black community, where therapy is talked about, it’s like, ‘Just go to church.’

For me, comedy was deftly terrifying.

A healthy smile has always been important to me.

I say all the time that when you first meet me, you know three things right off the bat: I’m Nigerian, I love to laugh, and I love Jesus.

I remember, growing up, it wasn’t sexy to be African. We got called names.

There’s random people calling my phone: ‘Your mother gave me your number.’ My mother has tried to set me up so many times long-distance.

As strong as we are, we have our moments. My mama is an African woman who had four kids and was a nurse for 25 years, and she had her moments. I’ve seen her cry.

I’m grounded in who I am.

Before ‘Insecure,’ I was a wedding emcee – a host for weddings. That’s a world that a lot of people are not familiar with.

I have a saying: Nigerians don’t fit in second place. Everything we do we go hard.

I started comedy in 2006. I didn’t even think it was a thing I could do.

If I’m home on Wednesdays, I go to Bible study. I get my God time in, definitely.

There are different types of experiences, and all of them are valid, and all of them deserve to be portrayed in a real way.

I used to work in public health, and the issues were sustainability, how the funds were being delineated, and if the funds were actually helping the people we think they’re helping.

I think there is this narrative that if you are a black woman, and you are strong, and you are educated, it’s like, ‘Good luck getting a black man.’

As for my role models… you know, I’m an immigrant, so we didn’t grow up with too much TV. My parents were like, ‘You must read your books.’

I like things to happen organically.

If you’re a woman of colour and you have any level of education, you have to adapt.

I grew up in a place called Port Harcourt, Nigeria, the youngest of four. What I remember most about Nigeria was the ease. I would play by the pool, have fun with friends.

My faith – as well as my Nigerian culture – really gave me the substance and foundation to be who I desire to be in life.

My faith has really been the biggest asset of my career. It has grounded me and let me focus on what’s important.

It’s only in acting where I’ve heard in auditions, ‘Can you black it up a little bit? Can you make her a little bit more urban?’ And it’s just like, ‘What?’ I don’t even know the word for that.

On ‘Insecure,’ Molly works at a law firm, and there’s scenes where her boss doesn’t value her voice and doesn’t value her efforts. And we had a lot of women tweeting ‘Me too’ in that situation. We’re saying, ‘Hey, no more. Not on our watch.’

Sometimes you are the only living, walking, breathing version of the Bible that people will ever see. What long-lasting taste are you going to leave in their mouths? A lot of people have left a bad taste. And it’s so unfortunate, because God is the best!

A lot of people have done things in the name of Christianity and religion and faith in a not-so-nice way.

I’ve been fortunate that the men I surround myself with in the comedy world are really decent people: men who are very aware, who are very respectful, and understand their place and maybe even some of their privilege.

I don’t look at God as some boring dude in the sky that tells me what to do all day. I legitimately be like, ‘Yo, you know what, G, that’s crazy how that happened. That’s dope. You know, you the real MVP.’

There’s this idea if you are a woman of colour, that you must never let them see you break down. That we’ve got to show ourselves in the best light, always, as the ‘Strong Black Women’ and bring that ‘black girl magic’ all the time.

Wanda Sykes and I have had similar career trajectories. We’re both from the D.C. area. She spent five years working as a contracting specialist for the NSA, and I got my master’s in public health.

There are so many professional women who have to be this boss, but when they get home, it’s like, ‘Can someone take care of me? Can I not be so powerful?’

I entered the Miss Nigeria in America pageant – yes, it’s a thing that existed. This was when I was getting my masters.

How many shows on TV do you see young black people, both women and men, really embody a full-fledged human being, flaws and all?

‘First Gen’ is kind of the ode to my parents and to really all immigrant children who come here with kind of a preemptive expectation placed on them, and then they get there, and they realize the American dream is bigger than, sometimes, what our parents dreamt.

It’s great for people to give out of the kindness of their hearts, but because we’re in a consumerist society, it’s also great to have the opportunity to give and get.

I knew I didn’t want to be a doctor but didn’t know what I wanted to do. I prayed, and all I heard back was: ‘Do comedy.’ It was something I had never done before, but I gave in, tried comedy, and the rest is history.

Black girls can make the best girlfriends.

A lot of people hustle differently, and I was like, ‘You know what, let me hustle and create, and let me have something to show,’ cuz my hustle led to opportunity.

My father just instilled in me that either you’re going to be No. 1 or nothing at all.

On TV, as in life, white folks are allowed to make mistakes, but usually, black people aren’t.

You can’t say you’re an actor if you’ve never acted, and you can’t act if no one gives you an opportunity, but they won’t give you an opportunity because you’ve never acted. You’re like, ‘What in the world? Someone give me a chance!’

I’ll probably always opt for makeup because I just like the way it feels. You can play with it and create different looks, and I think that’s fun. But I also want the option to not need it.

On a man, I love Tom Ford’s Tobacco Vanille. But I wear Orchid Soleil – I love a sweet smell.

I want to own a comedy club.

We didn’t grow up with TV as a viable means of supporting yourself.

I grew up with three older brothers, so I’m very much a tomboy in real life.

I always say my Christianity and my virginity don’t limit options. I think that they refine my options.

I worked for a company called Population Services International, a social marketing company advocating healthy behaviors. We had a big branding campaign with celebrities to help educate about the proper use of mosquito nets, for example, to help prevent malaria.

I was looking around this room, this sea of industry folk. If I had have worn black and white, somebody would have asked me to get them a cocktail; the only other people of colour there were servers.

For me, staying ready has always been, like, the preparations: do the behind-the-scenes or do what you think that’s not sexy that nobody will see, but when they do see it, it’s like, ‘Oh, snap… what she’s doing on her own, we’ll add to that, and it’ll blow up.’

For me, I just stuck to school. I thought you can’t be bullied and dumb, so books and I will be friends.

Sometimes you have to experience things for yourself to learn the lessons that you need to learn.

The thing about black women and black hair is that you just have to experiment.

I had my masters in public health, and the goal was to be a doctor, and organic chemistry let me know that that was not going to happen, as did my fear of blood.

When it comes to black female comedians, it’s like, if you’re not overweight, are you funny? There’s rules, like, you can’t be skinny and pretty and funny. I’m all three, sorry to break it to you.

I don’t know who I’ll end up with, but whoever he is must have a strong religious commitment, must be someone who loves God.

Every time you’re on stage, you’re acting.