Malorie Blackman Quotes

The next Bond ought to be a woman or, at least, a black actor.

Considering the popularity of soaps with the African-American audience, it's grotesque that the entertainment industry, for all its vaunted liberalism, is lagging so far behind social changes in the United States. And why has there never been an all-black daytime network soap? It would probably blow the white soaps off the map.

I did 'Are We There Yet?' because I wanted to do a movie for my fans' kids. Black kids don't really see movies on this budget for them, starring them. And there's so many white kids that love that movie.

The cool thing for me is, I go to a lot of conventions - a lot of science fiction conventions like Comic-Con - and there are always a lot of attendants of color. And I think some people believe that black people or people of color are not into science fiction or hero shows or genre shows.

I think what we need, especially in publishing, is more commissioning editors and editors who are people of colour.

There's all kinds of depictions of black men. You have the Denzel Washingtons and the Will Smiths; that's wonderful, but that doesn't represent everyone. There's a Russell Crowe... well, you know, there's a black Russell Crowe.

I think it's time that we had a dad of Middle Eastern descent on TV. The time is ripe for the Middle Eastern 'Cosby Show.' Or, as I like to call it, 'The Mazby Show.'

Diversity needs to operate on every level. It's great that the Oscars have highlighted it, but black actors getting nominated shouldn't be the only result. There's so much more that needs to be done.

I don't think Luke Cage as a superhero is something that has changed dramatically from the '70s to now. He's a black man going through the same thing as other people of colour - it's just that he has superpowers.

When I was growing up, all these superheroes were white. On some level, you put that out of your mind... but as you get older, you realize it's a very one-sided affair. So I'm very glad to see that these movies are becoming more diversified.

When I started my pathway, black players were often considered to be good wingers, good players, but not captain or management material. It has changed since then, which is pleasing, but we still have so far to go.

I knew there were calls for diversity in children's lit, but you always wonder as a person of color, how diverse is too diverse?

My goal for the #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign is to create systemic change across all school systems. I want there to be diverse books that reflect the lives of every person, regardless of whether or not they are in the majority.

America is Tiger Woods country for a reason, and she elected Barack Obama to punctuate this new reality.

There aren't many children's books about black characters that are just going on adventures. My library has over 2,000 children's books in it, and most of the protagonists are either white or creatures.

I always wanted to be like Mark Messier and I loved Wayne Gretzky, the same as other kids. But it was also really special for me to see the Black players that were in the NHL.

I grew up figure skating, and in figure skating there is only a handful of black people at the time figure skating with me.

'Hamilton' just asks us all to go a little bit deeper: whether you're a hip-hop fan seeing musical theater for the first time, or if you were thinking you were gonna see some reprise of 1776, and now it's this? And you're thinking, 'Wait a minute, these people aren't white!' It asks you just take a step and go a little deeper.

There were no small brown kids as the centre of the children's fiction I grew up with.

There still aren't many black women on prime-time TV. Times are changing, but it's interesting: we're in 2013 and still experiencing firsts... Hopefully, in the next 100 years, things will balance even more.

When I first started in modeling, I went back to England, and it was really hard, because I would go around to the agencies and they would be like, 'We already have one mixed-race black girl.'

It's great we have a female Thor. It's great we have a black Captain America. But those are just optics; it's optics of change... Unless you have the structural diversity, the structural change behind the scenes - more women, more people of color actually calling the shots and editing these books - those optics won't last.

For kids in 2nd or 3rd grade, I would recommend the 'Dear America' series. Most of the stories in the 'Dear America' series, if they have black girls, are about them being enslaved, but they escape or do something really adventurous.

Plenty of black people that I know have been on 'SNL,' and they haven't been utilized to the best of their abilities.

I want to be an inspiration, but I would like there to be a day when it is not 'Simone the black swimmer.'