I think unconscious bias is one of the hardest things to get at.

I do not expect the white media to create positive black male images.

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.

How people themselves perceive what they are doing is not a question that interests me.

For so many people, television and movies may be the only way they understand people who aren’t like them.

Barack knows the American Dream because he’s lived it, and he wants everyone in this country to have that same opportunity, no matter who we are or where we’re from or what we look like or who we love.

There is always another way to say the same thing that doesn’t look at all like the way you said it before. I don’t know what the reason for this is. I think it is somehow a representation of the simplicity of nature.

As capitalism falters, the rich move their money out of the country, violence increases, and politicians promising prosperity are elected.

People from all over the world come to London wanting to make their own mark on it, and they add to the energy and vitality of the capital. It’s got a bit busier since the ’60s, but the more the merrier!

We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are more alike than we are unalike.

To like an individual because he’s black is just as insulting as to dislike him because he isn’t white.

You know, one race will not be a survivor if the other one dies, and that’s something that we should think about.

If investments in banks fall, it is a tragedy, and people say, ‚What are we going to do?‘ but if people die of hunger, have nothing to eat or suffer from poor health, that’s nothing.

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.

The next time some academics tell you how important diversity is, ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.

I’m never a reliable narrator, unbiased or objective.

If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships – the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.

Paranoia is just another word for ignorance.

If you are an American, you must allow all ideas to circulate freely in your community, not merely your own.

When I was a child I asked my mother what homosexuality was about and she said – and this was 100 years ago in Germany and she was very open-minded – ‚It’s like hair color. It’s nothing. Some people are blond and some people have dark hair. It’s not a subject.‘ This was a very healthy attitude.

Our goal in the ’70s was to end the closed door era. There were so many things that were off limits to women: policing, firefighting, mining, piloting planes.

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.

Violence is both unavoidable and unjustifiable.

If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge? We shouldn’t marginalise people for this. They must be integrated into society.

No good is ever done to society by the pictorial representation of its diseases.

Racism and sexism, misogyny and homophobia, they’re so visible. They’re out in the open. When they’re visible, it’s a lot easier to deal with them.

I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.

The responsibility of tolerance lies with those who have the wider vision.

When I do a picture and it’s 90% black, like ‚Bird,‘ I use 90% black people.

Today, Negroes play on every big league club and in every minor league. With millions of other Negroes in other walks of life, we are willing to stand up and be counted for what we believe in. In baseball or out, we are no longer willing to wait until Judgment Day for equality – we want it here on earth as well as in Heaven.

Pakistan is not a unified country.

Without sounding biased, 70 days of football is not enough. Even if Messi plays 70 days he cannot be in the national team. You need to play around the year to be in contention for the national team.

I have no human feelings.

Here’s the thing. We do a movie with a predominantly black cast, and it’s put in a category of being a black film. When other movies are done with a predominantly white cast, we don’t call them a white film. I’m trying to remove the stigma off things they call black films.

Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image.

Shame is the most powerful, master emotion. It’s the fear that we’re not good enough.

Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you’re a human being, you feel, you suffer. You’re gay, you’re sick, you’re nervous or whatever.

The components of anxiety, stress, fear, and anger do not exist independently of you in the world. They simply do not exist in the physical world, even though we talk about them as if they do.

Masses are always breeding grounds of psychic epidemics.

The human being is a strange mixture of blind instinct, on one hand, and conscience, on the other.

I know that a large part of my fan base is gay. They’ve shown me love from the start. I mean in this industry, everyone from my glam people to my dancers are gay. You can’t be homophobic in this line of work – I’m a pop star!

I’m very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That’s my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it’s not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.

If you’re treated a certain way you become a certain kind of person. If certain things are described to you as being real they’re real for you whether they’re real or not.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

I’m not focused on the gay and lesbian movement.

The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.

Propaganda is amazing. People can be led to believe anything.

The person we believe ourselves to be will always act in a manner consistent with our self-image.

Man will do many things to get himself loved, he will do all things to get himself envied.

Society is at odds with itself.

If your culture doesn’t like geeks, you are in real trouble.

There are a lot of groups that feel a little bit strange around me, because I am inclusive.

To such an extent does nature delight and abound in variety that among her trees there is not one plant to be found which is exactly like another; and not only among the plants, but among the boughs, the leaves and the fruits, you will not find one which is exactly similar to another.

There is a sort of jealousy which needs very little fire; it is hardly a passion, but a blight bred in the cloudy, damp despondency of uneasy egoism.

In time we hate that which we often fear.

We believe that every single child has boundless promise, no matter who they are, where they come from, or how much money their parents have. We’ve got to remember that. We believe that each of these young people is a vital part of the great American story.

Neither sex, without some fertilization of the complimentary characters of the other, is capable of the highest reaches of human endeavor.

The media need superheroes in science just as in every sphere of life, but there is really a continuous range of abilities with no clear dividing line.

Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes.

Football fans share a universal language that cuts across many cultures and many personality types. A serious football fan is never alone. We are legion, and football is often the only thing we have in common.

We have a tendency to condemn people who are different from us, to define their sins as paramount and our own sinfulness as being insignificant.