Misty Copeland Quotes

If you don't believe you don't belong.

I kind of understood inherently - and I wasn't really conflicted about this - that comics were not for me or by people who looked like me. That was just something that I accepted about the world.

People want to know that there's someone else out there that looks like them.

I've lived my whole life trying to prove that I'm worthy of being a part of something because I never really felt that.

What we realized is if you don't see yourself represented - no matter if it is on TV or in a club or whatever - you're probably not going to want to attend. You're not going to feel comfortable.

I think when you look at the letters that I get, a lot of people are worried that maybe they wouldn't have a place in Donald Trump's America.

There's a place for everything and everyone, you know. That is the mistake they make above. They think that only certain people have a place. Only certain kinds of people belong. The rest is waste. But even waste must have a place. Otherwise it will clog and clot, and rot and fester.

I'm not into the Oscar and Emmys as much as I used to be because I'm tired of looking at people who don't look like me.

When you are in the family... you have more rights than when you are asking to join and knocking on the door.

People do get ridiculed for liking us or because they look the way they do and they're a part of what we do.

I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.

The essential dilemma of my life is between my deep desire to belong and my suspicion of belonging.

It's very important to me that people get to see themselves in stories. When someone tells me they've never seen themselves, I have a new goal.

There's a belonging problem in Hollywood. Who dictates who belongs? The very body who dictates that looks all one way.

I've always felt like I was an actor for hire. And almost apologetic for being a woman of color, trying to stifle that voice. But I don't feel that way in Shondaland. I feel like I am accepted into a world where I'm a part of the narrative - I'm a part of it.

Everyone can relate to being bullied. Everyone can relate to wanting to fit in and being part of a clique.

It's not hard to figure out when you're not welcome.

If people can understand me and accept me as a woman, I'm going to get booked for more jobs.

Nobody wants to be somewhere that doesn't want them.

When people doubt your right to be somewhere, the responsibility falls on you to prove over and over again that you deserve to be there.

There's a burden of responsibility for me to show up correct - in my head, if I don't do it right, then I'll get shut out, and then other trans women of color will be shut out.

If you're not represented, then sometimes you might not feel hopeful and don't feel like you can do something that other people are doing when you're just as worthy as they are.

A young girl reached out to me to be her mentor one day, which I didn't really know anything about. What I did remember was what it was to be alone as an African-American dancer in the ballet world and wanting to connect with someone who looks like me.

I feel like I'm opening the doors for more people. That they feel more comfortable being out. Especially in the hip-hop community.

I am so passionate about representation because, growing up, I didn't see myself, and now people can say, 'I see myself there.' We're all trying to find where we are.