I want to support other women because of the opportunities I’ve had – and I’ve had a lot of opportunities. What I try as a female director is to do the best job I can and, in the meantime, bring attention to as many other female directors and writers as I can.

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

It doesn’t matter how long my hair is or what colour my skin is or whether I’m a woman or a man.

I have a big gay and lesbian following and they’ve been very loyal and kind to me.

He who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.

In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights.

Nothing becomes so offensive so quickly as grief. When fresh it finds someone to console it, but when it becomes chronic, it is ridiculed, and rightly.

We do not so much need the help of our friends as the confidence of their help in need.

I want a president with a record of public service, someone whose life’s work shows our children that we don’t chase fame and fortune for ourselves: we fight to give everyone a chance to succeed.

All men are equal before fish.

The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.

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.

In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.

All of us are so mixed. My great-grandfather was white.

Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.

Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost.

I have said this many times, that there seems to be enough room in the world for mediocre men, but not for mediocre women, and we really have to work very, very hard.

America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.

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.

I think sometimes the critics want me to beat people down, and that’s not in me. I want to lift people up.

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

It’s a fundamental, social attitude that the 1% supports symphonies and operas and doesn’t support Johnny learning to program hip-hop beats. When I put it like that, it sounds like, ‚Well, yeah,‘ but you start to think, ‚Why not, though?‘ What makes one more valuable than another?

The lessons from the peace process are clear; whatever life throws at us, our individual responses will be all the stronger for working together and sharing the load.

There is no question that liberals do an impressive job of expressing concern for blacks. But do the intentions expressed in their words match the actual consequences of their deeds?

Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none.

I’ve never dropped anyone I believed in.

All of these young people have some kind of potential in them. And if we don’t invest in them as a nation, regardless of where they come from or what color they are, if we don’t invest in them, we lose.

Helping those who have been struck by unforeseeable misfortunes is fundamentally different from making dependency a way of life.

The best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

I wanna thank MTV and the VMAs for choosing me to be a part of the show because, on this show, if you not an icon or upcomin‘ icon, you’re not on the show, you know?

To an ordinary human being, love means nothing if it does not mean loving some people more than others.

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.‘

Shared joys make a friend, not shared sufferings.

When we are well, we all have good advice for those who are ill.

I have never left another senator out to dry. Never.

You have to give others the opportunity to love who you love. If they don’t accept it, it’s their loss.

How sweet it is to learn the Savior’s love when nobody else loves us! When friends flee, what a blessed thing it is to see that the Savior does not forsake us but still keeps us and holds us fast and clings to us and will not let us go!

We boil at different degrees.

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.

Here in America, we don’t let our differences tear us apart. Not here. Because we know that our greatness comes from when we appreciate each other’s strengths, when we learn from each other, when we lean on each other, because in this country, it’s never been each person for themselves. No, we’re all in this together. We always have been.

We have a big appetite for putting people down but, at the heart of everyone, there’s enough room for all of us to succeed.

In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds.

The United States has been enriched by Muslim Americans. Many other Americans have Muslims in their families or have lived in a Muslim-majority country – I know, because I am one of them.

Whether women are better than men I cannot say – but I can say they are certainly no worse.

The bottom line is that everyone thinks differently.

If proud Americans can be who they are and boldly stand at the altar with who they love then surely, surely we can give everyone in this country a fair chance at that great American Dream.

Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.

If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.

The fox has many tricks. The hedgehog has but one. But that is the best of all.

For all the supporters of Tesla over the years, and it’s been several years now and there have been some very tough times, I’d just like to say thank you very much. I deeply appreciate the support, particularly through the darkest times.

The expression a woman wears on her face is far more important than the clothes she wears on her back.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

No man, who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives, is left long without proper reward.

I speak to you only as an American who happens to be an American Negro and one who is proud of that heritage. We ask for nothing special. We ask only that we be permitted to compete on an even basis, and if we are not worthy, then the competition shall, per se, eliminate us.

Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent.

We need to try to unite audiences, unite countries, join musical tastes, unite people.

Growing up, I decided, a long time ago, I wouldn’t accept any manmade differences between human beings, differences made at somebody else’s insistence or someone else’s whim or convenience.

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.

Being acknowledged for your work is always a great accomplishment, whether it’s people in my city, kids in the street, all the way up to the Grammys.

Yeah, I did see where the people dissing me were coming from. But, it’s like, anything that happened in the past between black and white, I can’t really speak on it, because I wasn’t there. I don’t feel like me being born the color I am makes me any less of a person.