The camera or the microphone in the booth is merciless. If you don’t believe what you’re saying, it hears it. If you don’t believe it, it sees it in your eyes, it hears it in your voice that there isn’t the conviction there. – Riz Ahmed
‘Post 9/11 Blues’ is an observational satire about the surreal circus of fear at that time. It’s a generational thing. – Riz Ahmed
What’s interesting about the U.K. is that it celebrates an alternative voice. It’s up for telling new stories. – Riz Ahmed
My music is a very personal reflection of me, whereas, acting a role, that’s a reflection of another character. – Riz Ahmed
Bandwagons roll through our lives. It’s up to you whether you jump on them unquestioningly or jump on them to overturn them and subvert them. – Riz Ahmed
You can read a character that feels amazing, but if the world around it and all the writing around it – even the way the stage descriptions are written – don’t feel just right, then you know there’s no point in doing the project. No character is ever bigger than the whole film. – Riz Ahmed
Multiculturalism isn’t just a buzzword; it’s not just something to debate – I am multiculturalism. – Riz Ahmed
As a minority, no sooner do you learn to polish and cherish one chip on your shoulder than it’s taken off you and swapped for another. The jewellery of your struggles is forever on loan, like the Koh-i-Noor diamond in the crown jewels. – Riz Ahmed
I’m always trying to slip out of those labels everyone tries to put round your neck. We all have multiple selves. – Riz Ahmed
I like the idea of being caught between things, always being a bit of an outsider, having an outside eye on things – almost like a Shakespearean fool. – Riz Ahmed
The only people who have doubts about the sincerity of my music are people who come to it relatively late, off the back of having seen me in a film. Acting is about being other people, and music is about being myself. – Riz Ahmed
I remember, growing up, you didn’t wear an England shirt. The English flag was very much – and still is, to some extent – associated with the far-right movements of the 1980s that I grew up around. – Riz Ahmed
Being South Asian in the U.K. is like being Latino in the U.S., I would guess. It’s a bit more hood. You see things; things happen. I was bouncing between worlds. You’re acting from a very early age, when you have to code-switch like that. I’m a hybrid, a mongrel. I think many people live that life. – Riz Ahmed
Trajectories aren’t linear. Life’s just a roller coaster. If you’re getting a chance to do cool stuff, and it’s varied stuff, just enjoy it. I guess I’m a believer in the randomness of life rather than it being a linear trajectory or an arc, a consistent smooth arc, towards anything. – Riz Ahmed
Nothing will turn you into more of a ‘Star Wars’ fan than being on a ‘Star Wars’ set. When you see how lovingly that world is rendered by the set designers, costume designers, props department, art department, they genuinely build an actual world. That is not an exaggeration. They build a world. – Riz Ahmed
Sadly, I have disappointed the surveillance capitalists myself by not yet downloading ‘Pokemon Go.’ But I’m addicted to my phone enough as it is, and I don’t necessarily need that helping hand. – Riz Ahmed
I get good references from a wide range of music. Something who’s been a good influence in the last few years is Qawwali music. If you listen to a Qawwali singer like Aziz Mian – he’s like James Brown. Qawwali is like Pakistani gospel-jazz. It’s emotional, but it’s also improvised, and it’s all about that sacred-and-profane tightrope. – Riz Ahmed
The multiculturalism of Britain is one of our greatest strengths in music, literature, and visual art, but the TV and film industry doesn’t tap into the multicultural talent pool in the U.K. as much as they do in the U.S. – Riz Ahmed
The reality of Britain is vibrant multiculturalism, but the myth we export is an all-white world of lords and ladies. Conversely, American society is pretty segregated, but the myth it exports is of a racial melting-pot, everyone solving crimes and fighting aliens side by side. – Riz Ahmed
I think that with piracy and tighter funds being around, people are realising that the game to play is to try and win people’s respect with bold film making and then win a special place in people’s collections, rather than just having the biggest opening weekends. – Riz Ahmed
