Rokia Traore Quotes

I seem to get recognized more in London and Europe than over here in the States.

I don't get recognized in England. Not at all. Every so often, I get recognized in other countries.

It's frustrating when you come over here [Hollywood], especially from a position that I was in, in Sweden, where most people know who you are, but then you come here.

I feel like Alain Delon, who once said, "It doesn't matter that I'm not a star in America because I'm a huge star in France, I'm a legend in Spain, and I'm a god in Japan.

In some countries, no one knows who Idris Elba is.

You can be tops in Australia and be unheard of everywhere else.

Mind you, the limelight exists anywhere in the world. When you're not in the U.K., it can be as active somewhere else in the world, and for me, that's more or less been the case, so I never dropped out of the limelight in that sense.

Not too many people in America know about me, but all of Europe knows about me.

I get recognized for 'Reaper' in the U.K. I was in Costa Rica and got recognized for 'Heroes.' In Canada, it's 'Rookie Blue.' People also think that I'm in the 'Twilight' series because of Kristen Stewart.

I have fans all around the world.

I had absolutely no idea of the scale of its following and the globalness of 'Bond'.

When I come to London now it's like being in L.A., because they know me like I'm at home.

I mean, obviously, a lot of people know me around the world. Kids know me.

Being the first black Nobel laureate, and the first African, the African world considered me personal property. I lost the remaining shreds of my anonymity, even to walk a few yards in London, Paris or Frankfurt without being stopped.

I'm much better known in France and Germany and Spain than I am in the U.S. When I go to Russia, I get mobbed; I have groups of fans waiting for me out in the hotel lobby, waiting for me to come down off the elevator. In China, I almost got beat up because people were trying to get me to do a drawing for them.

As a kid, you either wanted to play Bond or a Bond villain. Ask any of my friends in entertainment, whether they are actors or writers or producers or directors, and they will tell you that they'd love to play a Bond baddie. I can go anywhere in the world and I am known; it put me on the international map.

I've been voted one of Australia's 50 national treasures. I've even had my face on an Australian stamp - the only non-Australian to do so, apart from the Queen, of course.

Hopefully, I can cross over into Hollywood, and hopefully that will bring me a bigger name in China.

It's funny in the U.K., where I'm not really known because I never did a soap. My English cousins in the Lake District think I'm not a real actor because they've never seen me in 'Home and Away' or 'Neighbours.'

It's weird, because everywhere I go, people yell, 'Grasshopper!' or 'Bill!' but down there in Mexico or Colombia or anywhere in South America or most of Europe, people will yell, 'Serpent's Egg!' And I'll go, 'Wow, man, these people are really hip.'

Asian fans chase me and shout; it is different in England.

When I'm back in my country, it's like being David Beckham. But it's like that for David Beckham all over the world. It must be more difficult for him than for me.

People who have followed my career still call me Ron, and that's OK; most of the young kids call me Metta, and then everyone in China calls me Panda. In the Middle East, they call me World Peace.

He's very, very well-known. I'd say he's world-famous in Melbourne.

Prince Harry is like the biggest international star there is.