"Do not think of yourself as a small, compressed, suffering thing. Think of yourself as graceful and expanding, no matter how unlikely it may seem at the time."

“We need to get past the point where being black and a male means that I am likely to mug you for your wallet, likely to have a minus 15 on my IQ, likely to not go to college and likely to wear my pants below my arse.”

Source : "Big Think Interview With John Amaechi". Interview with Max Miller, bigthink.com. October 7, 2010.

“I am tough, and sometimes I tell it like it is. Tough love can work wonders.”

“I've had a tough time learning how to act like a Congressman. Today I accidentally spent some of my own money.”

“I'm obsessed by film. I'm obsessed with music and producing and making things happen.”

“The secret to editing your work is simple: you need to become its reader instead of its writer.”

“Every great work of art ... is a celebration, an act of insubordination against the betrayals, horrors and infidelities of life.”

Source : Azar Nafisi (2003). “Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books”, p.47, Random House

“When our souls shall leave this dwelling, the glory of one fair and virtuous action is above all the 'scutcheons on our tomb, or silken banners over us.”

Source : James Shirley (1833). “The Dramatic Works and Poems of James Shirley, Now First Collected: The grateful servant. The traitor. Love's cruelty. Love in a maze. The bird in a cage. Hyde Park”, p.174

“I'm a really good dinner party guest. I am always so appreciative, impressed that anyone has even managed to turn on the oven and cook for me.”

Source : "Q & A With Lucy Punch: Woody Allen's New Film, Eating Geographically and Why Offal Is Off-Limits". Interview with Margy Rochlin, www.laweekly.com. September 20, 2010.