John Cameron Mitchell Quotes

I know intimately the struggle of trying to live your life and be yourself while feeling the pressure of an entire community on your shoulders.

When a man is born...there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets.

I personally am not interested in people trying to pigeonhole me.

I refused to conform to an image that a lot of people thought a president's brother should adopt.

Labels are for filing. Labels are for clothing. Labels are not for people.

I don't care what people call me, labels have the negative value of making smaller boundaries for people.

The girl next door isn't necessarily blonde and blue-eyed anymore. So I don't feel like I need to morph into that all-American thing.

I think it was hard for people to cast me as an ethnic, as an Asian American woman.

We put stereotypes on ourselves. Everybody does that. But I think it's just a little harder for black kids to just be who they are.

Hordes of young girls never copied my hairdos or the way I talk or the way I dress. I have, therefore, never had to go through the stress of perpetuating an image that's often the equivalent of one particular song that forever freezes a precise moment of one's youth.

Like most modern Americans, I assume individuality is not only a fundamental value, but a goal in life, an art form.

You get to an age where you get tired of hiding behind whatever people think is correct.

I don't like the fact that people are put into boxes based on what we look like and what we have to wear. Categories are meant for cookies, you know? Not for humans. And so the fact that I've been able to be successful and do it in a way that's very outside the box, I hope that that makes women feel like they can be beautiful in an authentic way.

When you buy into the cultural idea of what's acceptable and unacceptable, you reinforce negative stereotypes and prejudices. That wouldn't work for me. I don't love to give advice to anyone, because we all have to make our own choices, but I'd want to live my life in truth.

I think I've been cast as toughs as far as I can remember always, always.

I don't want everyone to think I'm just the girl who acts.

People like to put people in little boxes and if you don't fit you're odd. But they don't really know anything about me.

I hate the idea that you somehow, as a human being, have to be put in a box. There's no reason why lawyers can't be fun - or actresses can't be serious.

For a long time I wasn't allowed to be anything but 'The Governess' when I went on TV, even if I went on a talk show I had to be in costume. I mean guys, I own clothes!

The majority of the roles I've played are women who have been either impoverished or subjugated in some way. So while I've been fortunate enough to have success because these roles exist, they are stereotypical roles.

If I don't wear a wig, I'm called a nasty f*g, if I do wear a wig, I'm hilarious.

I think the world tries to put people in a box, like this is the only appropriate way to be beautiful.

There is a latent fairy in all women, but look how carefully we have to secrete her in order to be taken seriously. And fairies come in all shapes, colours, sizes and types, they don't have to be fluffy. They can be demanding and furious if hey like. They do, however, have to wear a tiara. That much is compulsory.

Labels are for cans, not for people.

The problem with all these fiercely individualistic girls was that they were all exactly the same.