Quotes About Assertiveness

When I set my hat at a certain angle and saunter down Seventh Avenue. . . . the cosmic Zora emerges. . . . How can anybody deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me!

Don't apologize. It's a sign of weakness. Captain Nathan Brittles, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

My skirts aren't a theater curtain for you to peep through," she hissed. "Impatient for the show to begin," he answered, unrepentant.

I'm done with having a m-man tell me what to d-do." He could carry her out, force her to wait, but she was determined to test herself, see what she was capable of, and he had to give her that room.

You heard me. You ain't blind.

But I ain't puttin' it in de street. Ah'm tellin' you.' 'Ah jus lak uh chicken. Chicken drink water, but he don't pee-pee.

Naw, Ah ain't no young gal no mo' but den Ah ain't no old woman neither. Ah reckon Ah looks mah age too. But Ah'm uh woman every inch of me, and Ah know it. Dat's uh whole lot more'n you kin say. You big-bellies round here and put out a lot of brag, but 'tain't nothin' to it but yo' big voice. Humph! Talkin' 'bout me lookin' old! When you pull down yo' britches, you look lak de change uh life.

Naw! Mah own mind had tuh be squeezed and crowded out tuh make room for yours in me.

SISTER TAYLOR Brother Mayor, I ain't one of these folks dat bite my tongue and bust my gall—Whuts inside got to come out!

Besides she liked being lonesome for a change. This freedom feeling was fine. These men didn't represent a thing she wanted to know about. She had already experienced them through Logan and Joe. She felt like slapping some of them for sitting around grinning at her like a pack of cheesy cats, trying to make out they looked like love.

You tries tuh be so much-knowin'. You got tuh learn how tuh speak when you spokin to, come when youse called. Ah ain't got tuh do but two things--stay black and die, Sister Berry snapped.

The theory behind our [Negro] tactics: The white man is always trying to know into somebody else's business. All right, I'll set something outside the door of my mind for him to play with and handle. He can read my writing but he sho' can't read my mind. I'll put this play to in his hand, and he will seize it and go away. Then I'll say my say and sing my song.

Put dat in yo' pipe and smoke it.

Let me be abundantly clear: I am black, and I am a woman, and I embrace both of those facts.

I am not here to accuse the media of anything.

I have been accused of never saying no.

I think I've always acted confident, even at times I haven't been confident.

Whether people agree with you or not, take an active role in what happens in your life.

Be your own advocate.

I do think that, as an advocate for myself on set, I'm very direct.

I think one of the problem that most women have is that they're not really good at advocating for themselves. They're great at advocating for other people.

There's nothing wrong with advocating for your own company.

If somebody says my ideas aren't good in the afternoon, I can go to a club that night and try to prove them wrong.

I've said no to a lot of things I'd like to have done. My agent has never seen anything like it.