Quotes About Advocacy

Rarely do celebrities and actors speak up for what they believe in.

Although it happens more rarely in men, breast cancer is not gender-specific. I was in Costa Rica, and in the shower I felt this lump under my left nipple. It was very small, mind you, but enough to make me call my doctor.

People in communities like Granger, Indiana, are rarely heard from on cable networks. But they, too, believe it is wrong to deport friends and neighbors who do no harm and much good.

As a woman leader, I thought I brought a different kind of leadership. I was interested in women's issues, in bringing down the population growth rate... as a woman, I entered politics with an additional dimension - that of a mother.

The reason why we have 19 percent women in places like Congress is because we don't run at the same rate as men. And I think one of the things we're starting to realize is we have to step into the arena.

Native women and girls experience violence at far higher rates than any other female population in the country - a crisis that has devastated our communities and has been neglected for too long.

Here's something women need to stop doing to other women: We need to stop asking each other to lower our fees, cut our rates or work for free because we're members of the same sex.

Being able and willing to complain is what makes us rational and moral animals, capable of seeing and articulating the difference between how things are and how they should be.

I rant and rave about noise pollution.

I hate seeing people getting a raw deal and artists not being in control of what they are doing. It happens all the time.

I will fight for my children on any level so they can reach their potential as human beings and in their public duties.

It stuns me how effective children can be in their messaging, and I believe that every child should enjoy that basic right to become an adult. Getting rid of childhood cancers is one effective way to reach that goal.

Non-violent protests have reached a plateau. There is no other way but to get into politics to make your voice heard.

A lot of times I've reached my hand out to people in the gay community that just didn't have nobody to help them when they were down and out.

Small- and medium-sized companies do not know what we have to offer and that needs to be changed. We must react just as strenuously on their behalf as we do for larger companies.

Quite frankly, I talk about the fact that I'm a feminist as often as I can, and every time I do, it gets huge reaction, and media reacts, and the Twitterverse explodes and things like that, because here I am saying I'm a feminist. I will keep saying that until there is no more reaction to that when I say it, because that's where we want to get to.

One of the biggest complaints readers have about my work is that I don't tell them often enough what they can do. I do think this is an area where journalism sometimes falls short. We describe a really grim situation but don't really explain to people what they can do about it.

As a children's author, you get to advocate for reading and writing in general, in a way an adult author might not be able to. It's a really interesting dance we do to get literature into the hands of young people and to help them to become literate and become readers; we want them to grow up reading and continue to do so when they're adults.

We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.

I have been hung in effigy by the gay community for a long time, from when I was on President Reagan's first AIDS commission.

The big percentage is us, the real people, and we have to say something. You have to speak up. You have to.

The people I've met through my path in activism, we're trying to bring real people into a leadership role because we are real Americans and know the true pain of having to worry about our children. And there's no force like a mother trying to protect her child.

I'm a real person, and I'm angry. I'm trying to use this celebrity thing to get people some help. AIDS, poverty, racism - I want to be one of the hands that helps stop all that. I'll put it on my shoulders. I'll charge it to my account.

The real problem for Democrats is we've got to help people believe, and then we've got to deliver the message to them. Believe what? That we are absolutely, unshakeably on their side, and we're going to fight for them every single minute.