Quotes from Don Lemon

You don't have true freedom until you allow a diversity of opinion and a diversity of voices.

I grew up believing that I could be the president of the United States. I was told I could be whatever I wanted.

You go to Brooklyn, everybody's got a beard and plaid shirt. They may be able to tell each other apart, but they all look alike to me.

Michael Jackson is an accidental civil rights leader - an accidental pioneer. He broke ground and barriers in so many different realms in artistry, in pictures, in movies, in music, you name it.

I'm a gay black guy. If I can't ask questions without caring what people think of me, who can?

I'm a citizen of the world.

Just because you can have a baby, it doesn't mean you should. Especially without planning for one or getting married first.

It doesn't matter if gun violence is down. We need to get guns and bullets and automatic weapons off the streets.

More than 72 percent of children in the African-American community are born out of wedlock. That means absent fathers.

Who needs a bullet piercing, armor piercing bullet to go hunting? Who needs an assault rifle to go hunting? You can't even use the prey that you kill with an assault rifle if you indeed do it.

Most people would think if you're the prime news anchor, then you should sort of be this Edward R. Murrow, Clark Kent guy with the family and 2.5 kids - or the perky, cute yet smart Katie Couric.

I believe in diversity in front of and behind the camera.

My mom tells me every single day that she's proud of me.

Whatever happens with my career, I'm going to prosper no matter what.

Governing means governing all of the people, no matter what demographic it is, whether it'd be black, white, women, straight, gay, Republican.

Can the president really blame Fox News for his problems?

I was born gay, just as I was born black.

When people ask me why I'm amazed at what Barack Obama has accomplished, I tell them it's not because of what most of America and the world sees and knows of his history. It's because I witnessed what I can only describe as a bizarre turn of events that thrust him into position to even become a U.S. senator.

I think secrets are something that you keep or are afraid to share because you think they're going to harm you in some way. So if you don't have any secrets, then there's no way anyone can harm you.

Being gay doesn't take your brain away or exclude me from having the same attributes as anyone else.

The best way not to encounter America's health care system is not to have to encounter it.

Many people who know me call me 'the hardest working man in the news business' because you're never, ever going to outwork me.

If you're going to be in the business of news and telling people the truth... you've got to be honest. You've got to have the same rules for yourself as you do for everyone else.

Learn to love being black.