Quotes from Cree Summer

I wanted to be in a rock band. That's all I ever wanted to do.

I always wanted to be a rock star.

My father said, 'Let's raise our child in a paradise instead of a parking lot,' and that's what they did.

If anybody knows how to be friends, it's black women. We have been enslaved and had to care for each other and each other's babies and pick each other up in so many powerful ways. We know to take care of each other, we know how to be friends.

A lot of political things would have to dramatically change in this planet for a woman of color to be carefree.

I don't know a single black girl who's carefree because it ain't easy being a girl of color, period. God, I wish we were carefree.

Usually cartoon characters stay a certain age; that's part of their appeal. Usually they don't grow up.

When you hang out with yourself, you learn to keep yourself in check.

I guess when you come from a supportive family they always expect the best of you.

People say to me, 'Ooh, L.A. is so plastic.' Sure, it's mountains to the right, oceans to the left and pretense in the middle, but who... has to hang out in the middle?

I didn't know about competition until I got to school. I didn't know how degrading it was to be graded until I got to school.

Being in the body of an African-American woman, I prefer animation. I get to be everybody. I don't have to always be the white girl's best friend. I can be the princess. I can make an inanimate object come to life. I can be a little boy. I can be anything.

It it weren't for HBCUs, 'A Different World' wouldn't exist.

I was reading 'The Prophet' on my own when I was 10 years old.

I've always been proud to be different, I've always stood out like a sore thumb and I always have not given a damn.

Art is a gift and if nobody hears it, that doesn't make it any less of a gift.

I was raised on an Indian reservation, and I didn't see a television set till I was 10, so it's not a part of my life.

When I'm working with strangers, I can get a little timid or scared. With friends, I'm willing to' try anything, because there's a lot of trust involved.

My generation spends too much time in the mirror and not enough looking inside ourselves.

I was never plunked in front of an idiot box because my parents had other things to do.

When I was 19 my friends dared me to come to Los Angeles and see if I could make it down here.

I know to shut up when I don't know what I'm talking about.

The Indians are a civilization wrought with culture and a beautiful, deep spirituality.

I like to look at the skyline and the moon.