I seem to be getting a lot of things pushed my way that are strong women. It’s like people see Hackers and they send me offers to play tough women with guns, the kind who wear no bra and a little tank top. I’d like to play strong women who are also very feminine.

I’ve still not written as well as I want to. I want to write so that the reader in Des Moines, Iowa, in Kowloon, China, in Cape Town, South Africa, can say, ‚You know, that’s the truth. I wasn’t there, and I wasn’t a six-foot black girl, but that’s the truth.‘

My show ‚The Big House‘ was picked up; they flew me to New York. I’m about to step on stage to announce Kevin Hart’s ‚The Big House.‘ And a hand grabs my shoulder, ‚Kevin no, they just decided to cancel it.‘ It’s a serious smack-in-the-face business, and either you can take it, or you can’t.

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.

People who bowl vote. Bowlers are not the cultural elite.

No sanction can stand against ignited minds.

Every time I try to retire, or even think of retiring from acting, my agent comes up with a script.

If a woman possesses manly virtues one should run away from her; and if she does not possess them she runs away from herself.

No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.

It’s absolutely normal that different human beings want to go different ways.

I was lucky to be involved and get to contribute to something that was important, which is empowering people with software.

I feel like my music has become a lot of things. It’s hard to label the evolution, but I like there to be an evolution. I just like to paint with all different kinds of colors.

I certainly agree that putting everything into little genres is counterproductive. You’re not going to get too many surprises if you only focus on the stuff that fits inside the box that you know.

I like to be in control of how I look and how I feel and how I act.

Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to others.

We should not underestimate ourselves, because if lots of individuals go together then we can accomplish almost anything.

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

You can change your world by changing your words… Remember, death and life are in the power of the tongue.

There is nothing in the world like the devotion of a married woman. It is a thing no married man knows anything about.

People don’t want drama 365 days a year. I’m a sense of relief; it’s my job to take your mind off what’s bad for that brief second you’re in the room with me, regardless of shape, race, colour or anything. It brings people together, and it makes me feel good about what I’m doing.

Blacks, especially in America, have been raised with a slave mentality – they don’t feel that they have the right to speak as loud as possible.

We must have government that builds stamina into communities and men. That makes men instead of mendicants.

In Hollywood, a lot of times when something is in development, it just takes a lot of time.

The immigration issue is, I recognize, one that generates a lot of passion, but it does not make sense for us to want to push talent out.

I think life is a matter of choices and that wherever we are, good or bad, is because of choices we make.

Real beauty knocks you a little bit off kilter.

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that oral teachers and sign teachers found it difficult to sit down in the same room without quarreling, and there was intolerance upon both sides. To say ‚oral method‘ to a sign teacher was like waving a red flag in the face of a bull, and to say ‚sign language‘ to an oralist aroused the deepest resentment.

We are a nation of communities… a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.

I grew up in a very nice house in Houston, went to private school all my life and I’ve never even been to the ‚hood. Not that there’s anything wrong with the ‚hood.

I have some good friends of my own who happen to be gay, and when it comes to gay, straight, or whatever, I’m for anything life-affirmative. I’m for gay power, straight power, male power, female power; everybody should feel empowered without oppressing anyone who’s different.

I like to hide behind the characters I play. Despite the public perception, I am a very private person who has a hard time with the fame thing.

I think any man who lets a woman pick what he should wear… I mean, you gotta draw the line somewhere as a man. I see these guys, ‚My wife told me to wear this!‘ And I just shake my head.

My mother had a saying: ‚Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you’re not the last.‘

I’m not convinced that women have the education or the sense of their own history enough or that they understand the cruelty of which men are capable and the delight that many men will take in seeing you choose to chain yourself – then they get to say ‚See, you did it yourself.‘

In the past when I was in Hollywood, I was like a dog. I felt humiliated. My English was not good. People would even ask me ‚Jackie Who?‘.

Taylor Swift’s audience can listen to me, but so can the street kids. I want to touch it all.

I think all those actors from that generation, like Bogart – they were wonderful actors. They didn’t act. They just came on and they did it, and the characters were wonderful.

Time and money spent in helping men to do more for themselves is far better than mere giving.

I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.

On the other hand, you have different fingers.

Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.

I’m trying to show everybody that I’m a girl, and I’m five foot four, and you can do anything you want, no matter your gender. It’s your world, too!

Freedom lies in being bold.

The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.

I tried acting, liked it, and stuck with it. I saw it as the way I would keep that promise to myself of getting back at those who had made my school life a misery.

You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

Fashion is here to help make people look very important. If they have good taste and choose what suits them, I give them options on how they can do that. It’s always sexy, and it’s always with the same result: making women look fantastic.

Because I was suspicious of the traditional Christian church, I tended to tar them all with the same brush. That was a mistake, because there are righteous people working in a whole rainbow of belief systems – from Hasidic Jews to right-wing Bible Belters to charismatic Catholics.

I always thought that there was nothing an antifeminist would want more than to have women only in women’s organizations, in their own little corner empathizing with each other and not touching a man’s world.

See, ‚A Time to Kill‘ was the one I got famous off of. Big ka-boom, over one weekend. After that, I did films that I really wanted to do.

I’m no natural beauty. If I’m gonna have any looks at all, I’m gonna have to create them.

I say, ‚Yeah, Taylor Swift.‘ I think she is a smart, beautiful girl. I think she’s making all the right moves. She’s got a good head on her shoulders. She’s surrounded with wonderful people. Her songs are great. She keeps herself anchored. She knows who she is, and she’s living and standing by that.

Life’s like a play: it’s not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.

Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors.

The law will never make a man free; it is men who have got to make the law free.

I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one ‚race‘ – the human race – and that we are all members of it.

I believe there is complete equality between men and women. And I believe those passages in the New Testament, not by Jesus, but by Paul, that say women should not adorn themselves, they should always wear hats or color their hair in church – things like that – I think they are signs of the times and should not apply to modern-day life.

Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.

I get impatient with people working on a film that have their head in their hands like it’s the most complicated thing in the world.

In writing, I apply my feminine side and respect the mystery involved in creation.

You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else. And so sooner or later, you have enough courage to really stand up for the human race and say, ‚I’m a representative.‘