Quotes About Representation

There should be a democracy of voices in literature. There are people who live with a kind of striving and with a certain kind of tenderness - it's not an unusual thing - and maybe that's not written about enough.

With 'Broadcast News,' it became a non-issue, and with 'The Piano,' it became a non-issue. Both parts were written for more statuesque women. It was nice to change people's minds about that, because that's neither here nor there.

People are so used to men playing these amazing roles that they sometimes can't even see that there is no reason it has to be a man other than it was written that way - this is true for diversity in general.

My family was always wondering why I ended up playing people who were mentally ill, insane, downtrodden, and a little crazy. I think what they don't understand is that most female parts are written basically as hysterical women.

I've wondered if 'Harry Potter' would have been as big if it was 'Harriet Potter.' Now that I've written a screenplay - and raising a son in particular - I'm looking at story content and realizing how limited women are onscreen.

If we don't center the voices of marginalized people, we're doing the wrong work.

We're not ashamed of the old stuff, but when you look back at the posters it does make you think: 'My God, six men and one woman.' Weirdly we didn't say 'that's wrong' and no one else did, either. It's been a really quick shift in the landscape of telly, which is brilliant.

The stigma with country is it's not cool. That's wrong. Country is very cool. I look at award shows, I look at how country is represented. Country is represented with an asterisk. We have to perform collaborations. We have to perform a tribute. We can't perform by ourselves.

In terms of representation, television is reflecting an era that has passed. It's the wrong time; it's the wrong period. In all sorts of television, it doesn't feel like the 21st century.

There isn't a right or wrong way to be depressed, anxious, or struggle with PTSD. Mental health challenges manifest differently for different people, and it's important that people see that on-screen.

We play the right way at the Spurs. We don't go about business the wrong way, we play hard and represent the Spurs the best way we can.

I've tried to be inclusive in my '2B' series. Over the course of three books, I wrote African-American characters, a paraplegic character, gay and lesbian characters, a bisexual, Jewish heroine, a multiracial hero, Korean and Chinese-American characters, and a multiracial supporting character.

Whites were the winners, blacks were the losers, we wrote the history books, and they didn't feature.

I did The 'Acid Test' at the Royal Court, by Anya Reiss, who's the most wonderful, amazing female writer. She was only 19 when she wrote it. She wrote it about three girls in a flat on a Friday night, and that was magic because it was so rare to have three girls in your age group in a play. It just doesn't happen.

My very first story, I was around 5, and I really just wrote myself. When I was 5, I loved myself so much I gave myself a twin named Tomi. Everything started out fine. But then I didn't write another black character until I was 18.

If all I ever wrote about was inner city freaks, I think it would be dishonest.

I'm going to be an ambassador for WWE.

WWE is a global brand, and it's a global company. So, we want to have superstars from all over the world.

I've said it before, that I think if we can have any woman from any other background to come into the WWE, it makes it better for the performers.

I didn't want to walk into WWE and be someone who just does bikini matches and played second fiddle to the guys. I wanted to stand out, make people excited to see women's wrestling, and show them we can be better than the men.

When I came into WWE, what I said to myself was, I wanted to change the term from 'divas' to 'women.'

I think being the only Pakistani wrestler in WWE will bring some attention from the country as well. I'll do my best to do Pakistan proud and give them something to cheer about.

Most people aren't familiar enough with what actually goes on in professional wrestling to know just how badly women are treated in WWE narratives.

Of course I will always be an ambassador for the WWE, so definitely anytime they need me for something, I'm only a phone call away.