Liya Kebede

I've been told the best way to make a sexy face is to say 'pruuune.'

There's a saying in Africa: 'To find out you are pregnant is to have one foot in the grave.'

I know how much parents love buying clothes for their kids and how they want to give them something new in the closet.

What I love most about Mother's Day is that I am acknowledged and honored for being a mother.

The desert loves me. I love the desert. It's nice to be in the heat in Africa. I love it.

We can't end poverty if we fail to save the lives of our world's mothers.

No other health disparity is so stark; virtually every woman who dies giving birth lives in a poor country.

I grew up watching films. Film has been part of my life since I was a child.

It's very difficult to hand someone your whole life story to play, and you've never really met that person.

Traveling around Ethiopia, I saw dozens of abandoned textile factories. People kept asking me to help them find work. So I thought I could make use of my experience in fashion to commercialize their products outside of Ethiopia.

It's not just Ethiopia, but Africa in general - most of the media concentrates on what's not going well. But there is so much beauty there. When you go, it changes everything. It changes you, your life, and the way you see things. The challenge is changing the image of Africa that's been anchored in people for years now.

I think, first of all, every time you want to play somebody who is real is always challenging and always scary, because you are given a responsibility of someone's real life.