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If you can’t imagine yourself in one of those boats, you have something missing. They are dying for a life worth living.

— Noma Dumezweni

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Source: Harry Potter’s Noma Dumezweni delivers spellbinding speech: “I am a refugee child” Stylist (retrieved 13 November 2025)
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

More by Noma Dumezweni

If I could bring back one trend it would be looking people in the eye; acknowledging their presence with a simple ‘hey’ or nod as they pass you by. People more often seem shocked when I smile and say ‘hello’. It brings them into the present. We need that.

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More quotes by Noma Dumezweni

I may only have three lines, but you are going to see me because I know I’m going to react. I’m going to be present.

Any time you get low, sit in it but don’t indulge in it. I wasted too much time worrying about what other people thought about me. Forward motion – that’s what I’m doing now.

See me as a human, don’t see my colour first.

I used to want to fit in so much when I was young because of growing up in a predominantly white place.

You want me for my color, you want me for my culture, you want me but you're not looking after me. You're not seeing the individual. That drives me absolutely fucking crazy.

All Noma Dumezweni quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Noma Dumezweni (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.