38 Motivational Idris Elba Quotes to Fuel Your Soul

Idris Elba is an English actor, producer, and musician who is best known for his lead roles in the tv shows ‘Luther’ and ‘The Wire’. Idris Elba has also played roles in the movie series ‘Thor’ and played a role in the prequel for the ‘Alien’ movies; ‘Prometheus’.

Check out these inspirational Idris Elba quotes on life, success and motivation!

Here are 38 motivational Idris Elba quotes:

Idris Elba Quotes on Fear, Confidence and Being Yourself:

1. “I’m not afraid to fail. I’m not afraid to fall over and make a mistake. That often cripples people on the onset of getting into anything.” – Idris Elba

2. “Neither of us will touch the sky if we give ourselves boundaries.” – Idris Elba

3. “You always have possibilities.” – Idris Elba

4. “My definition of bad-ass is that I’m a force of nature and true spirit. I’m self-admitting that, and it sounds vain to say that, but I am.” – Idris Elba

5. “If I can see myself doing it, I can do it. It’s important that people just go, lose the boundaries, lose the conformity and just go for it.” – Idris Elba

6. “Fear nothing. Do what you want to do, but be educated and intelligent and confident about it.” – Idris Elba

7. “Waking up in truth is so much better than living in a lie.” – Idris Elba

8. “I’m never shaken or stirred.” – Idris Elba

9. “I’m rebelling against being handed a career, like, ‘you’re the next this; you’re the next that.’ I’m not the next anything, I’m the first me. I can’t be myself, I can’t just be Idris Elba. But that’s just the nature of the business.” – Idris Elba

Idris Elba Quotes on Hard Work and Ambition:

10. “Work hard, sleep less.” – Idris Elba

11. “I’m a veteran of looking at an opportunity and knowing whether it will take me forever or not.” – Idris Elba

12. “You wont know you got to the top until you got there.” – Idris Elba

13. “It turns out that you make your own luck but you work hard to keep it.” – Idris Elba

14. “I love working. I’m a workaholic and I’m really privileged for some of the jobs I get offered and so I just want to keep going.” – Idris Elba

15. “I was always a real athletic kid. Then when I got older, I just figured it was part of life to keep training.” – Idris Elba

16. “I try to fit in workouts whenever I can.” – Idris Elba

 
17. “Know what your target is, don’t guess it… If you don’t know what your targets are you’re never going to get there.” – Idris Elba
 

18. “I’m an ambitious person. I never considered myself in competition with anyone, and I’m not saying that from an arrogant standpoint, It’s just that my journey started so, so long ago, and I’m still on it and I won’t stand still.” – Idris Elba

19. “The other thing I think is important is to keep your head down.” – Idris Elba

20. “I’ve always had ambition, and the acting was successful and put my name on the map, but it was never the plan to stop there.” – Idris Elba

Idris Elba Quotes on Mindset and Life Lessons:

21. “Their confidence becomes shattered in an instant because they don’t have an abundance mindset… When you have an abundance mindset and you get rejected, it’s ok. Because you tell yourself tomorrow ‘I will find 10 other jobs’ or ‘I will find 10 other new people’.” – Idris Elba

22. “I’ve been poor my whole life, so now I don’t really do things based on money, I do things on authenticity of how I feel.” – Idris Elba

23. “Look whoever you’re talking to in the eyes. Don’t look away. Two reasons: you can tell whether they are lying. Also, so that they can see whatever you’re saying you mean and you can connect to that person.” – Idris Elba

24. “My father always told me that a fool at 40 is a fool for life.” – Idris Elba

25. “I come from an era, in my world, where you just had to define yourself as who you are and what you do.” – Idris Elba

26. “That’s the thing about people, they always find ways to surprise you.” – Idris Elba

27. “I watch my daughter wanting to be like other kids and getting upset that she’s not. But I always try and instill in her the idea that she’s perfect as she is.” – Idris Elba

28. “When you come from an underprivileged background, oftentimes, you feel a little overwhelmed by your education or your lack of.” – Idris Elba

29. “We’re all human beings. Experience is experience, let’s just be honest. Let’s not try and dissect suffering into a race, or whatever you want to call it. We’re all human beings, one way or another. All races have gone through times that are challenging; that’s part of being a human.” – Idris Elba

30. “There are things that I really find important, and that we need to remind ourselves of. When you think about disability, do you really think about it? Someone who’s got a full-time trainer or a boxer, someone who’s got a major disability, but who doesn’t let that get in his way, that’s a really good message for someone who is able-bodied. It can make them think, ‘wow, I suppose I could be doing better for myself.” – Idris Elba

Idris Elba Quotes on Acting, Music and Creativity:

31. “What really excites me in a project is when it goes in a way you haven’t been before.” – Idris Elba

32. “I love to talk about nothing. It’s the only thing I know anything about.” – Idris Elba

33. “You get a reputation for answering phones, and all they do is ring.” – Idris Elba

34. “I’ve been DJing mostly, and most DJs end up producing. That’s just me.” – Idris Elba

35. “Every single film I’ve done, it’s about the character.” – Idris Elba

36. “Yeah, I know, any time you hear an actor say, ‘I do music’, you cringe. But I want to be gradual with my music. I want to earn my stripes.” – Idris Elba

37. “Whether it’s music or acting, that creativity all comes from the same source.” – Idris Elba

38. “I love to play different roles. That’s just the kind of actor I am.” – Idris Elba

Which Idris Elba quote is your favorite and why? Comment below!