Quotes About Inclusion

People used to call me names, so my mom had this beautiful African lady come talk to me.

When I was 5 years old, I moved with my mother and brother from Philadelphia to a small town in Florida. People talked more slowly there and said words I had never heard before, like 'ain't' and 'y'all' and 'ma'am.' Everybody knew everybody else. Even if they didn't, they acted like they did.

My mother and father could not handle even me being gay. We never talked about it, really.

If I went to play for Lithuania or Latvia, no one would have talked about it.

I do wish that people talked about the subject of race, especially in the South.

I think it's great to be talked about as a woman film-maker. It's part of who I am; it affects me daily. I want it to be part of the conversation. I'm for any scheme or initiative that gives women a way in.

During my childhood in Cyprus, the British talked about the Cypriots as if the Cypriots were outsiders in their own country. And even though I was born in Cyprus, my parents were American, and so I was an outsider in the land of my birth.

I was never hiding from being gay; I just never talked about it.

If I were to have seen more people that looked like me - because I'm Palestinian and Lebanese - and talked like me and acted like me, I probably would have had a lot more hope knowing that I wasn't alone. I really hope that this show, 'Champions,' gives that to people.

We belong to talking, not what talking is about... Stop talking - and you are out. Silence equals exclusion.

We don't like talking about race in the U.K. - it's a very sensitive subject. People get extremely defensive and run for the covers, but I believe we have to talk about it.

Making something the norm is the only way of not making it a talking point.

Kurt Vonnegut talks about how we know there is another family out there and when we find it we get this almost instinctive sense of belonging. And that is how I felt in Enniskillen in 1977 when I realized there were these people of all ages, whatever their religion, from different backgrounds, who were bound together by a love of plays and acting.

You look at science fiction and look how often it talks about being alien, being alienated about the other. Look at the number of blue people - 'Avatar,' I'm looking at you. And it is now easier to find people of color in science-fiction literature and media, but the issues of representation are still really, really troubling.

Women who are living near the borders are never included in peace talks. It's the woman, who sits in her air conditioned room and never leaves Lahore or Delhi, who participates in such talks.

I didn't have the easiest childhood. I was never the popular girl in school growing up. I was always the lone black girl or the lone fat girl or the long tall girl, so that has made me more compassionate to all people. It also gave me the drive and ambition to go after my dreams in a big way.

I'm not 6-feet tall and I'm not a size 2, so I never thought there would be an industry for me to fit into.

You don't get to be in the squad unless you're six feet tall, a supermodel, perfect, famous, and hot. That's like hand selecting perfection, putting it into a group of girls, and saying, 'Look how amazing we are.'

I understood my path and what I meant to the game and what I mean to kids. Not only kids, but individuals around the world. Folks that didn't think that the game was meant for smaller people. For me, I always felt that, tall or small, the game was for all.

I can't pull back. I'm 6 foot 3, I'm tall, and I'm gay. I light up the room.

As a teenager I was really self-conscious because I was so much taller than everyone else. And in Australia there weren't many black girls around - there definitely weren't any dark girls on TV - so I didn't really have anyone to look up to.

I felt like I was the odd one out growing up in the province because I was half-Filipino and half-German, so I wasn't full-blooded Filipina and, of course, I was the tallest in my class and I felt kind of awkward.

I'm not the tallest or the thinnest - and I think being in shows is a major part of when I stopped second-guessing myself.

I used to have a very difficult childhood because I was always the tallest girl in school, and everybody was staring at me and saying, 'You are very different.' Now, different is good.