Quotes About Representation

The culture of tech companies cannot change if women aren't in the room.

In the 2013 Economists Program, we hired 51 percent women, 49 percent men. And the reason for that is that we have a draft from all over the world, and we've hired, for instance, in that group, a good number of Chinese economists - highly qualified, all Ph.D.s from the best universities of the world. And guess what? They're all women.

It's not that I am saying that women and men are completely different. But I do think that if you are one of the only people around the table who is a woman, by definition, you're different.

I think it's very important for both women and men to see women working in a variety of capacities.

We can celebrate how far we've come from our sexist past when women and men are equally represented in the pages of science fiction anthologies.

There are so many more women and men who deserve opportunities. People of color. Period.

My favorite thing to do is rip the covers off a script when reading for writers to hire and make everybody read without names on the covers of the script. I can't tell you how many times my writers, women and men, will pick people of color and women much more often than they would with a cover on the script.

How many shows on TV do you see young black people, both women and men, really embody a full-fledged human being, flaws and all?

Because if a woman can only direct women, and men can only direct men, and Black directors can only direct Black actors, then we are missing out on opening up voices to different perspectives.

What's so dumb is that women are 50 per cent of the population, and they want to spend money to see movies where they're portrayed as three-dimensional characters.

Men are shameless in selling their story. Women are often reserved. So we do need to encourage women to know their story and then tell it strategically as to how they can add value.

I think Hispanic women are beautiful with their curves. I'm not sure who feels that way in Hollywood. I was never told to lose 50 pounds. If they think that they just don't bother with you. You just don't get the role and you never know why. That's still better than physically harming yourself and becoming unhealthy just to star in a movie.

I want to show how strong and smart women are. We go through so much. We need to see that on screen. Those female parts are not many, but they are out there, and I have to find some. I want that chance.

People of color and women are increasingly being shown on-screen. For things to be whitewashed just doesn't make sense.

Across the board, women are unhappy with our industry.

If someone were to call me 'the next Amy Tan,' it would not be because - or not primarily because - we have similar themes or subjects or styles. Let's be honest: it would be because we are both Chinese American.

I'm hoping to see some minorities in executive offices in positions of power, people who see the merit of projects with minority themes. That may or may not happen.

It's important for me to talk about my life as a gay man, not gay themes per se, in my work.

I was making big paintings with mythological themes. When I started painting black figures, the white professors were relieved, and the black students were like, 'She's on our side.' These are the kinds of issues that a white male artist just doesn't have to deal with.

I grew up never seeing myself on-screen, and it's really important to me to give people who look like me a chance to see themselves. I want to see myself as the hero of any story. I want to see myself save the world from the bomb.

And that's what people want to see when they go to the theater. I believe at the end of the day, they want to see themselves - parts of their lives they can recognize. And I feel if I can achieve that, it's pretty spectacular.

The 'American Idol' and 'X Factor' shows, they're great shows. But I think I need to make a show like that, directed straight to the hood, to the artists that don't get the attention, that don't have the money to make themselves representable.

Human beings have a lot of problems identifying themselves with other human beings who don't resemble them exactly. But there's something about drawing that means that anyone can identify to a drawing. I mean, people can identify themselves with Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse.

Numbers can't speak for themselves, and data sets - no matter their scale - are still objects of human design.