Isaiah Washington Quotes

I enjoy challenging perspective - challenging ideas of what it means to be a black man.

I was born on the fairer side, but I've always been fascinated by dusky and dark tones. So, when the makers of my films asked me to go a few shades darker, I didn't think twice. I am not doing anything extraordinary, but I want to break cinematic notions about outwardly appearances.

It delights me that I don't fit the stereotype of an actress.

I try not to define myself. Other people are going to do that for you anyway.

I don't think a name defines the core of who you are.

I was trying to establish an identity in music, and black and white had nothing to do with it.

I used to object to being called an Indian writer, and would always say I was a writer who happened to be an Indian, and who happened to write about Indians.

I guess I'm a black woman with a mouth.

Part of my mission as an actor has been to define what an American is.

I'm a man in a wig who is an entertainer, I'm not a role model.

I am whatever you want me to be and I can't control that. My experience is my experience, but I can't really claim anything. I know when I take my wig off at night and I have to twist my hair up, I'm black. But I don't get too personal most of the time.

With my face paint on, I don't look like a regular black dude.

'Nimona' is about identity and if who you are is defined by what you look like. It's not a book about body image at all, but I would be lying if I said that wasn't in there even at the conception of it.

I know what my identity is.

Binaries aside, we are the products of our relationships with our identities - cities we have built, bodies we have embraced, kindred souls we've cherished, our memories, our dreams, the fears we hide, the pain we hold - identities that cannot be reduced to a collection of labels.

I really just prefer to be exactly who I am, and black is really the closest race and cultural category that represents the essence of who I am.

The music we listen to may not define who we are. But it’s a damn good start.

This race and this country and this life produced me, he said. I shall express myself as I am.

Oh, no. I don't think I've ever really subscribed to that view, that you can turn it on and off like a water tap. Um, you know, I think that there's a whole lot that goes into the makeup of an individual that, uh, you just can't simply say, oh, like, "Tomorrow morning I'm gonna stop being gay." It's like saying, "Tomorrow morning I'm gonna stop being black."

I think people who struggle to define themselves might never be satisfied because there is no definition. Living with responsibility is important, but I don't really think you have to grow up.

Black males who refuse categorization are rare, for the price of visibility in the contemporary world of white supremacy is that black identity be defined in relation to the stereotype whether by embodying it or seeking to be other than it…Negative stereotypes about the nature of black masculinity continue to overdetermine the identities black males are allowed to fashion for themselves.

You have to be your own person. You can't let people's opinions determine how you think about yourself. There's a difference between identity and self-identity.

When alone I am not aware of my race or my sex, both in need of social contexts for definition.

Sexuality shouldn't define you. It should be part of who you are.

Getting to a place where I am comfortable saying things was hard-earned for me. I've chewed on the ground glass of my own experience. I saw Gloria Steinem speak, and I was just like, Shut the front door. She was saying that she didn't come into her own until her 40s, and she was asking herself the question, Why should she have to get married? And I just thank God someone asked that question, right? I think we're the first generation of women asking ourselves certain questions and deciding for ourselves.