Martina Navratilova Quotes

I had mentors, growing up in gay life - older gay men who told me about our history and the history of art and culture - but somehow, the younger generation missed out on that synergy.

For a long time, I lived in West Hollywood and watched young gay men strolling through life having no idea what came before. They didn't know about the riots at Stonewall, the vice squad, the raids.

A society that does not correctly interpret and appreciate its past cannot understand its present fortunes and adversities and can be caught unawares in a fast changing world.

I grew up with no money. My kids will grow up with a lot of money and so it's really important to me, and it will always be a part of my parenting, to keep them conscientious and connected socially to other people.

Parents who wonder where the younger generation is going should remember where it came from.

When I was in South Africa, I went for dinner with some friends, and I knew more about their history than they did - it just hasn't been told.

When I was a kid, Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O'Donnell were mere blips on the gaydar; and they were both still in the closet.

Until we perceive the meaning of our past, we remain the mere carriers of ideas, like the Nomads.

You take a 30-year-old. To him, history began the day he was born. He doesn't know how cold it was 70 years ago unless he's told. He doesn't care. He thinks what's happening now is either the best or the worst, whatever it is, ever. Everybody thinks that.

Understanding history means knowing what motivates you.

Unless we know where we've been as a country, we don't know where we are or where we are going.

Without understanding your history, you can't get a perspective about the present.

We encrypt 'Drag Race' with the secret language that kept gay people linked for many years before the '80s.

We want to uplift the culture of Filipino - our respect to our elders, how we pray before we eat and sleep. These are things the younger generations tend to forget because of our exposure to other cultures.

I haven't studied history - I couldn't give a discourse in medieval literature - but I am a personal historian, and I do a lot to take in the histories of the people around me.

History lets you know exactly where you are today. And if you pay attention to it, it gives you a broad perspective of everyone. You can relate it to pretty much any time.

A wisdom deficit - fewer elders and even fewer people who listen to them.

One of the sad things, I think, about the younger generation, quite frankly, is they have less sense of yesterday. And if you don't know who you were, you don't really know who you are.

People have to realise you don't help African children singing along to 60-year-old men playing their tunes from 40 years ago.

If you're 30, 40 years old, you're not getting listened to by minors.

My work as a whole is about excavating and shining a light on pieces of history that not only need to be seen and heard, but that can also add to the conversation about what's going on now.

I think, with 'Pride,' I always knew that was something amazing because of the people who were in it and the story and the way it was written and who was directing. Anyone in that cast knew it was special.

There have been moments where I laughed at my own family's culture, though it's hard to separate out whether something funny is cultural, or just my grandma specifically.

I am not as knowledgeable about the struggle for gay rights, for our history, the way some of my castmates or other gay men I know are.

It is good to be well connected with English language, literature and history, but the knowledge of our culture and roots is equally important.