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 are as many opinions as there are experts.

‚Suffering should not make us bitter people,‘ my mother once said, ‚it should make us better comforters.‘ Young people need to hear this from those who have walked before them, because someday they’ll be walking those same steps, but there may not be anyone following behind.

You know that being an American is more than a matter of where your parents came from. It is a belief that all men are created free and equal and that everyone deserves an even break.

Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another?

If you have a success you have it for the wrong reasons. If you become popular it is always because of the worst aspects of your work.

I can easily imagine Obama sitting down and talking to any leader – or any person – in the world, with no baggage of past servitude or race supremacy to mar their talks.

Germany is a great nation only because its people have so much Polish blood in their veins.

A person who can’t pay gets another person who can’t pay to guarantee that he can pay. Like a person with two wooden legs getting another person with two wooden legs to guarantee that he has got two natural legs. It don’t make either of them able to do a walking-match.

If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.

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

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

For me, already being part of a single parent household and knowing it was just me and my mom, you’d would wake up times and hope that the next day you’d be able to be alongside your mother because she was out trying to make sure that I was taken care of. But all I cared about was her being home.

I think the bottom of the totem pole is African-American women, or women of colour. I think they get the least opportunities in Hollywood.

They’ll forget all the rubbish when I’ve gone, and they’ll remember the football. If only one person thinks I’m the best player in the world, that’s good enough for me.

It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.

I just think overall there’s not as many female ministers than there are male ministers.

Happiness is within the reach of everyone, rich or poor. Yet comparatively few people are happy. I believe the reason for this is that the majority don’t recognize happiness even when it is within their grasp.

Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes.

Racism is real in this country.

When the people you love are gone, you’re alone.

He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.

Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one’s soul.

My mom and I have always been there for each other. We had some tough times, but she was always there for 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.

I’m over being a pop star. I don’t wanna be a hot girl. I wanna be iconic. And I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot. I feel like I’m highly respected, which is more important than any award or any amount of records. And I feel like there comes a point when being a pop star is not enough.

Let’s teach kids, at the kindergarten level, what the contributions of people of color were to building the United States of America.

Men and women aren’t the same. And they won’t be the same. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be treated fairly.

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.

Children are all foreigners.

It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.

My father had a dairy farm. He employed three black families and one white family, and I used to play with black children.

There are many levels of Christianity. There are many notions about God. To believe that God is a person is just one of the notions of God that you can find in Christianity. So, we should not say that there is one Christianity. There are many Christianities.

People who work for me know that family comes first. And I’m fortunate to have a family that is very supportive of the work I do, so I don’t have to live two separate lives.

I didn’t get a lot of awards as a player. But they did have a Bob Uecker Day Off for me once in Philly.

I think the whole stigma of ‚black movies‘ is slowly being lost. When you look at movies like ’12 Years A Slave,‘ to ‚The Butler,‘ to ‚The Best Man,‘ to ‚Ride Along,‘ to even ‚Think Like a Man‘ from last year – these movies are just good movies.

It’s different from being 21 and you think there’s endless amount of opportunities. At 33, the ending is much, much closer.

For Christians, who believe they are created in the image of God, it is the Godhead, diversity in unity and the three-in-oneness of God, which we and all creation reflect.

I love the women’s movement, and I never thought of it as belonging to any particular segment of the population.

My main focus is always to do well on the field for the Indian cricket team. When people say good things about me off the field, I am more than happy to accept them.

It’s true my father abused me and didn’t love and protect me the way he should have, and at times it seemed no one would ever help me and it would never end. But God always had a plan for my life, and He has redeemed me.

Because you know when you first become famous, you start walking a little different because people are staring at you.

People who have been hardworking, tax paying, those people ought to be given an opportunity to be on a track that leads towards citizenship, and if that happened, then they wouldn’t be prey to the employers who say, ‚We want you because we know that you work for a salary we could not lawfully pay anyone else.‘

Where you live in the world should not determine whether you live in the world.

In the United States, I am a great success, but I am not a celebrity.

A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.

A true friend encourages us, comforts us, supports us like a big easy chair, offering us a safe refuge from the world.

Whenever a youth is ascertained to possess talents meriting an education which his parents cannot afford, he should be carried forward at the public expense.

Believe it or not, I was just given an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Tennessee.

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.

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.

Even before I went to the UN, I often would want to say something in a meeting – only woman at the table – and I’d think, ‚OK well, I don’t think I’ll say that. It may sound stupid.‘ And then some man says it, and everybody thinks it’s completely brilliant, and you are so mad at yourself for not saying something.

In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.

I do have a lot of gays in my family now, but some will never come out.

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.

Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.

There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating – people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.

So while an incredible amount of progress has been made, on this fifth anniversary, I wanted to come here and tell the people of this city directly: My administration is going to stand with you – and fight alongside you – until the job is done. Until New Orleans is all the way back, all the way.

The thing that motivates me is a very common form of motivation. And that is, with other folks counting on me, it’s so easy to be motivated.

The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more.