Quotes About Acceptance

To face deflation, you have to have people accepting it and not reacting to it.

Being gay facilitated my capacity for shame. As a child, I carried around this thing that gradually became this big dark secret. When I came out in a newspaper interview at 30 I was expecting the reaction the following day to be like the climax of 'Dead Poets Society,' but actually no one really cared.

What I'd say about that is that we must respect homosexuals in the church. I've got many homosexual friends, the issue is not in any way a homophobic reaction on my part.

I'm still astounded by some people's reaction to things I consider quite normal.

I don't feel that as human beings we have an obligation to dislike someone based on their beliefs, and it's OK to have a human reaction to someone even if you feel what they do is hideous and objectionable. You can still enjoy their company and find them interesting to be around.

People see themselves on camera. They're ashamed of the things that they do, so they have a choice: Either they accept responsibility for it, or they blame the show for it. It's a human reaction.

The cutest part is that both my grandparents have tried to adapt to my dream. When I sat them down and showed them a film that I did - with an intimate scene in it - I was surprised that their reaction wasn't dramatic. My grandmother even came to me to ask, 'How do you do it?'

It was tough: I had to kiss a man, and I got a mixed reaction from the black community. But I have to be ready to play any role, or I can't call myself an actor.

The basic premise that children must learn about emotions is that all feelings are okay to have; however, only some reactions are okay.

I am not afraid of aging, but more afraid of people's reactions to my aging.

It's important as an actor to understand, whatever you do, you're going to have reactions from all kinds of different people, and be OK with that.

However, intention needn't enter in, and if a reader sees things in a religious way, and the work is dogmatically acceptable, then I don't see why it should not be interpreted in that way, as well as in others.

I think there have always been male writers, female writers. As a reader, I never picked up a book and said, 'Oh, I can't read this - it's about a male,' and set it back down.

As a reader, I much prefer to read a book where people embody all kinds of ideas and everybody is making mistakes.

Through my fiction, I make mainstream readers see the new Americans as complex human beings, not as just 'The Other.'

I don't need every book to have female creators, I don't care if there are books that appeal mostly to guy readers. I don't care if some books have cheesecake. I am fine with all of that. It's the not allowing anything else that makes me furious.

When I wrote 'The Interestings,' I wanted to let time unspool, to give the book the feeling of time passing. I had to allow myself the freedom to move back and forth in time freely, and to trust that readers would accept this.

I like collecting comics, I like buying comics, I like looking at comics, but I also read comics on digital readers, so any way people read comics is fine with me. Digital is just helping people who might not necessarily have access to comics help them; that's great.

I feel like, maybe in the '90s, 'Rookie' would have been shamed for trying to reach a lot of people or trying to be 'mainstream', but I'm so pleased that our readers are happy to see me promoting the 'Rookie' yearbook on TV or whatever.

I'm not interested in forcing my beliefs on my readers.

I know, normally folks on TV wouldn't readily admit their age, but since there's nothing you can do about it, you might as well own it and be happy.

All over the country, they're reading about me, and the story doesn't center on me being gay. It's just about a gay person who is doing his job.

Honestly, if anyone reads my work, they're doing me a favor, so they get to use whatever words they want to describe it. I can't control that, nor if they like the work, so best not to even try.

I'm far more ready to go with the flow now because I am more accepting of myself.