Quotes About Diversity

If there was going to be a pioneer of the plus-size girl of my shape on TV, why not me?

I will not restrict myself. I want to do films and TV: both mediums are amazing to reach to the audience and express your art form, and if both are available, then why not exploit them?

Why stick to just prose or just music or just newspaper or just video? Why not create new models for information that combine elements of them all?

When you look at the world, the world isn't just one palette. It's a beautiful rainbow, and why not have someone to represent that rainbow?

You can be a Polish American, or an Arab American, or a Greek American but you can't be English American. Why not?

I remember seeing 'Snow White' and saying to my mother, 'Will there ever be a Chocolate Brown?' She said 'Probably. Why not?' I just never thought the first black princess would be me.

It's healthy to have two car shows. Why not? The viewer gets twice as much car show to watch.

My grandad's a gospel singer, and his children were singers, too. But I don't believe in God in the same way... not religion; it breaks us up too much. The same with musical styles - it breaks people up. I believe they are all one thing - why not put them together?

I have the strangest time to get cast in anything. 'Ghost' was the same thing. Six months I had to wait for them to decide they had seen everybody possible. Why not? What limits me? I'm black? Oh, am I black?

I try not to get typecast in any role, any image. I feel I can do justice to every kind of role, so why not make the best of it? See, commercial films alone can get you only so far. If you want to last as an actress, then you have to put in that extra bit of investment by doing off-beat films, too.

I have done comedy and romance. So I thought why not try negative roles too.

There's diversity in nature, so why not the media?

It's nice we're getting better representation. So being typecast now? To be a gay guy? For sure. I am one, so why not?

I'm criticized by the feminists, by the Jewish establishment, by Canadian nationalists. And why not? I've had my pot shots at them. I'm fair game.

I really like to think of each record as its own thing. So, for sure, but I hate the idea of being stuck in anything. Like I want to do a Hawkwind-style record too, or a noise rock record or a hardcore record. Why not, you know? I would just not want to keep heading too far in one direction, without pulling off and going the other way.

There are women in every genre having a lot of success. Why not celebrate that?

I remember Tom Stoppard saying to me when I came out, 'I feel so sorry for you, because you'll never have children.' These days I would say, 'Well, why not, Tom?'

People say 'Why would you learn Dutch? Nobody speaks it. Why not French?' Even the Dutch say that to me! I say because I want to live here, I think it's only common courtesy that I speak the language.

Why not celebrate those who want to marry and bring up a family?

It's a bummer interracial love is still such a big deal. To me, it's quite normal. I grew up seeing couples that were interracial. Who cares if it's a black guy and white girl, or an Asian guy and white girl, etc.? Odds are, every combo exists out there somewhere so why not put it on the screen? Shouldn't art imitate life?

I've been all over the world. I've been to Japan, Africa, Morocco, everywhere. Heck yeah, I would go to Ireland. Why not?

I wouldn't like to see a female Bond, because we wouldn't want to lose the Bond girls. But we could have a lesbian Bond - why not?

I always love where I can plug a black woman in anywhere, and when that comes up, I don't say, 'Oh that has to be a black woman.' I say, 'Why not a black woman?'

People say they don't want to call a call-centre in India. Why not? They're doing the same job - you just don't like Indians.