Mark Bradford Quotes

The more we can be in a relationship with those who might seem strange to us, the more we can feel like we're neighbors and all members of the human family.

I like it now when kids stare at me, because it is a way of starting a dialogue. And it is far better than them not looking at you at all. Nothing is worse than not being seen.

As a kid I had all kinds of questions about how I fit it with my neighborhood and friends and other Latinos.

I think that is important, to not make people feel alien.

I want to give people who might not feel included a place to go.

Presence is in the eye and ear and gut of the beholder. When you are totally present in a conversation or in a meeting, others around you perceive you as totally focused on the matter at hand and on being of value to them.

I like the idea of a broader range of people feeling seen.

We've got to find a way to use our identities to reach other people.

We all want to belong to something, and we all want to feel as though we have a legacy, and when you see two characters that have had that taken away from them, I think that just feels very real and very human.

I guess I always think of myself as more of the people. I always feel like a bit of an outsider.

Making those around you feel invisible is the opposite of leadership.

People have asked me about playing outsiders. I don't consider myself an outsider. Maybe that's why I'm interested in that. I'm not really sure.

Every human being has to feel a part of a tribe. It's programmed into us. And you have to feel that you're contributing to something.

What I loved the most about Oakland was that all of my neighbors came in as many colors, ideas, and religions as there are people on the planet. How lucky I was to know so many people that were so different and yet so much alike!

I'm a fully paid-up member of the human race.

We cannot let another person into our hearts or minds unless we empty ourselves. We can truly listen to him or truly hear her only out of emptiness.

As a young man, even if I was going to see a play or a film by myself, I didn't feel like I was alone. There was something that was unfolding up there that brought me into it. And I recognised that. For those two hours, it made me feel like I belonged to something really good.

There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met.

I'm trying to make a case for those people who don't have a sense of belonging that they should have, that there is something really worthwhile in having a sense of belonging, and recasting and looking at our modern history.

The most basic human desire is to feel like you belong. Fitting in is important.

If you walk down the street and see someone in a box, you have a choice. That person is either the other and you're fearful of them, or that person is an extension of your family. And that makes you at home in that world and not fearful. So really it's very self-serving.

It's the differences in people that help you realize who you are. Even if we silently pass each other on the street.

As a reader I want to be present and entertained. I don't want to be taught lessons, and I don't want to be spoken down to. I want to be treated as a peer and to be made to feel welcome.

Diversity is … the sometimes painful awareness that other people, other races, other habits of mind, have as much integrity of being, as much claim upon the world, as you do.

We all have as much right to take up our space in the world as one another.