“A character is never entirely white or black, there’s never entirely right or wrong. You have to realize sometimes you face something, and then you change your mind, or then you realize you were wrong.”

Sometimes we had to improvise. I hate to improvise because I felt like I couldn’t find words.

I feel very honored and special really. You can’t imagine, to arrive at the Oscars when you arrive so low, and you can’t go further than the Oscars.

Right now I’m the most famous silent movie actress in the world and I want to keep that for me. So I hope there’s not going to be any other silent movies.

Marlene Dietrich for the way there was something so unique about her – the way she entered into a frame and everybody looks at her and the way she winks and looks up.

I’m okay. Nobody’s bothering me. Everyone’s very kind, and very polite. I don’t feel like my whole life changed.

The difference between the extras here and in France is the French extras read books. Actually, they hide the book and pretend that they’re acting. Here (in Hollywood), you can see everybody wants his break.

My parents were not pushy or anything like that. I think my mom was still expecting me to be an astronaut, but now she is very happy that I’m not doing that.

I spent hours on the internet looking at how glamorous actresses winked and how they would put their hand on their waist, and I was told to look at how they would walk in a room and how her body takes place of everything.

I read Gloria Swanson’s autobiography just because I wanted to know what it was like in the time.

I guess I’m the perfect young lead actress. I’m not Chloe Sevigny – I’m not really a character actress. Some actors have “character” faces.

Even in the very beginning when she would bump into George Valentine and people would start taking pictures of her, she never thought “I’m with George Valentine. I need to get a picture with him.” She’s like “oh that’s funny. Everyone’s taking pictures!”

I tried to find a character and how I would be an American actress in the 30s. But if this was a talking movie [The Artist], I’m sure she would be exactly the same for me.

I really enjoyed being Peppy Miller. She was an amazing character and her energy followed me everywhere. When I talk about her I want to be her again.

Maybe I’ll put my iPod in two minutes before. But truly, I’ve listened to actors say that they loved to listen to music before a shot, and I really understand that now because it puts you in the mood and gives you energy.

Of course, when you work on a character, you try to understand her. You feel that everything she does has a reason.

For us, as actors, and even for the director, it gave us a sense of authenticity to what we were doing because we were talking about Hollywood and we were in Hollywood.

If a white man wants to lynch me, that’s his problem. If he’s got the power to lynch me, that’s my problem. Racism is not a question of attitude; it’s a question of power.

People look at me, and they go, ‘You’re white, you’re smart, you must have went to college. You must have grown up with money.’

Step out the front door like a ghost into the fog where noone notices the contrast of white on white.

We were not talking about the average white person: we was talking about the corporate money rich and the racist Live politicians and the lackeys, as we used to call them, for the government who perpetuate all this exploitation and racism.

I maintain that every civil rights bill in this country was passed for white people, not for black people.

We’ve got black and white, we’ve got Hispanic and Asian, we got gay, straight, and Guttenberg, all working together for one common goal: to get the mirror ball.

I also know that while I am black I am a human being, and therefore I have the right to go into any public place. White people didn’t know that.Every time I tried to go into a place they stopped me

There has been only a civil rights movement, whose tone of voice was adapted to an audience of liberal whites.