Quotes About Representation

It's time for storytellers to tell the stories that have not had the privilege of being shown to the world, and the audience will be there.

When I think about the shows that we have on our air, we've been known for a long time for shows that feature strong, dynamic, powerful women at their forefront. And we're going to continue with that kind of storytelling.

Specificity is what makes good storytelling, and good storytelling is what makes money, and making money is then what encourages new producers to invest in different stories about Asians.

When we talk about LGBT characters on TV we're talking about the entire rainbow, and that includes trans people, and that includes non-binary people, people of color, women, differently-abled people. There is so much opportunity for storytelling there, and I hope that we continue to see more of that.

We've made so much headway with storytelling - mostly on cable, let's be honest - but also on the networks and, you know, I think it's about time that the leads are women. I'm not a woman, so I'm a bit biased - I wouldn't mind if a few roles were left over for men.

I am a perfectly normal woman. If what we do is storytelling and represent people that we see all day and every day, well, we do not see supermodels all day and every day.

There's a lack of diversity amongst executives in the position of greenlighting a film who feel that their stories are being told. If there's a diversity at the executive level, then we'll have diversity of the storytelling process.

I'd say 50 on men is like 33 on women in Hollywood. The standards - it's just the way we do our storytelling. And I hope it will change, because I think it's dumb.

I'm more compelled as an artist to see diversification than I am to keep watching an Anglo point of view in storytelling.

Women bring things to the storytelling of news that is maybe more relatable to the women that are consuming.

We promote Asian storytelling - not just Asian stories but Asian people in stories with the full spectrum of the human experience. When you say, 'Oh, it's not enough attention on Asians. It's more black and white,' that game becomes like you're playing the discrimination Olympics.

We need storytelling from all angles. We need men, women, and trans people participating in all aspects of filmmaking; this is the only way we can depolarise the age-old standard of singular perspective.

I think as you have a more diverse group of people working in the industry, you automatically have more diverse storytelling. That's definitely to be celebrated for sure.

We all have to deconstruct the looks in ourselves. It's easier if you see different cultures and different imagery than just the pure straight male gaze and that you're aware that images are political. Not everybody is.

So the fact that a lot of straight men have gone on to play iconic gay roles and to be lauded for that is fantastic, that that story is being told. But wouldn't it be brilliant to see gay men play their own experience?

There is a large group that's not represented on television - the group that falls somewhere in the middle of straight and gay. That group is looked down on, because people say, 'You can't be in-between. You have to pick one or the other.'

I think it shouldn't matter at all what character people play, but of course there is a narrative that's very clear, that openly gay men aren't playing straight in leading roles.

When was the last time you saw a straight black love story without any guns?

The only people I don't reach on a very personal level are straight white men. They don't really need another entertainer dedicated for them exclusively, so they're fine.

Gay actors have been playing straight since Euripides.

That's the whole point of my trying to achieve success in mainstream pop - to have straight people sing to my music that has a 'she' pronoun in it.

Straight people are everywhere!

'Looking' was always a niche show for a niche within a niche. It's a gay-themed show, so you're not going to get millions of straight people watching it - that's the inevitability of it.

I think, almost, the film industry thinks that by making gay characters super masculine, it's an attempt at saying being gay is OK if you act like straight people. I don't think we should just have gay characters who are 100 percent femme, either. I just think it's about that mix and creating more diverse gay characters.