Sudha Murty Quotes

I think I had really good parents. I got really lucky. They said, 'You're a woman; enjoy yourself and believe that you can do things.'

I had very supportive parents that made the way for me, even at a time when there were very few women - no women, really; maybe two or three women - and very few, fewer than that, African-American women heading in this direction, so there were very few people to look up to. You just had to have faith.

I have always felt strongly about empowering women. I'm living proof that, with confidence and by believing in yourself, you can accomplish any goal.

I've had young women come to me and say that before they watched 'Voyager' it didn't really occur to them that they could be successful in a higher position in the field of science; girls going to MIT, girls pursuing astrophysics with a view to a career in NASA.

For me, I grew up doing kiteboarding where no girls are doing it, and you had to prove yourself. You just had to know that you could do it, too. It's the mentality you had to have to make it. I work hard like anyone else.

If I can sit on national television, and people are listening to what I think, anyone can do anything.

I knew there was a school where women could study astronomy. So... it never occurred to me that I couldn't be an astronomer.

I did not grow up thinking that I wanted to be an engineer. I had read some articles about girls becoming increasingly scientifically illiterate and that girls lacked confidence in their capabilities when it came to quantitative skills. And I just thought that was kind of wrong.

I love the women who are coming back to school and getting their degrees because they're so focused.

Women hold themselves back because they don't think their perspective matters. I'm here to tell you that you're not just robbing yourself when you do that: you're robbing all of us.

It's not easy being a female guitar player. You have to believe in yourself.

There were times when I was down and frustrated being in a male-dominated sport: you don't get the support. It affected me. Layne Beachley helped me beat that. That was the difference for me and helped get me through.

From the very beginning, I had a lot of female role models in music. I would go to shows, and there were always women fronting bands and playing guitar or backing up and playing drums or bass in a band. That probably contributed to my belief in myself to go out and perform for people.

My message is don't be discouraged by anything anybody tells you. In my case of the science thing, and I just ignored people who said, 'Oh, girls don't do that.'

The most powerful determinant of whether a woman goes on in science might be whether anyone encourages her to go on.

I'm fighting for the girls that never thought they could win.

If there's specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can't change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies. It's irrelevant who or what directed a movie, the important thing is that you either respond to it or you don't. There should be more women directing; I think there's just not the awareness that it's really possible. It is.

I just want to help other women achieve as much as they can in society without restraints being imposed on us. It's the most natural and normal thing to want to defend your rights to equal opportunities, equal pay for equal work, and everything that comes with that.

[Degree in English] gave me a little more self-confidence, to know that I'd managed to complete something like that.

Believing in yourself and being willing to do anything, to walk through the fire, to do what it is that you want to do. Getting out of that car accident covered with blood to play the gig . . . I mean, that's me. That's just me.

It really occurred to me at a certain point: women have not been embodied. Feminism has not been embodied. It hasn't gotten into us in a way where it is so undeniable that there is nothing to prove. Do you know what I mean? That we are so in our feminist skin, so to speak, that we are that world now.

People should know whatever it is you love to do. I am a living testament to the fact that you can do it. You can do whatever it is you put your mind to and you can do it in stilettos.

If anyone tells you that you can't achieve your dreams, or puts you down, make your hand into a claw and tell them you're a little monster and you can do whatever the f*** you want.

We have to teach our girls that they can reach as high as humanly possible.

Women of South Africa are some of the most powerful people on Earth. Change what you believe is possible for yourself.