Bernice Johnson Reagon Quotes

I'm constantly asking for alternative views on most things that come to me.

People make the assumption that you're only interested in one thing based on the most recent thing you've done. But some directors can be pretty promiscuous about their tastes, and that's how I want to challenge myself.

Do I take alternative points of view? Yes, because all the media are going in another direction.

If we took information only from sources with which we agreed on all issues, we would be left with merely quoting ourselves, and we would miss a great deal of truth.

'Pigeonholed' isn't the right word, because I feel like I've had a very wide range of characters that I've been allowed to play.

There are two sides to being pigeonholed. There's, 'Oh, no, I'm going to be Chandler for the rest of my life,' but there's also the fact that getting to play Chandler opened up doors to me. It's now my job to find things that shake it up a little bit.

I don't mind being stereotyped in some way and playing certain kinds of guys, but if I can find something to occasionally get a break from that, that would be nice. And I feel like I manage to.

Let me put it this way: when I read, I learned the world was not as small as my house. And that everybody in my home town was not representative of the way people in the world were raised. And that was what saved me.

I try to avoid typecasting by doing different roles.

The best books are the ones that ask the most questions.

All partisan movements add to the fullness of our understanding of society as a whole. They never detract; or, in any case, one must not allow them to do so. Experience adds to experience.

I've always found diversity more interesting than specialisation. I like mixing it up across years, within days, within weeks - that's what stimulates me, gives me energy.

My own way of thinking is very conservative, very linear and not particularly imaginative, but if I look for things in different places, sometimes things happen.

Really, you want to have variety as an actor. If you spend your career doing one thing solidly, people get burned out.

At those times I got into... I suppose you call it a rut. I used to do comedy, comedy, comedy and I suddenly thought I ought to break away from this somehow.

I'm trying to learn from various corners of the world.

I certainly agree that putting everything into little genres is counterproductive. You're not going to get too many surprises if you only focus on the stuff that fits inside the box that you know.

If we learn from those only, of whose lives and opinions we altogether approve, we shall have to turn from many of the highest and profoundest minds.

I think it's important that science just doesn't stay within narrow boundaries.

There are a lot of writers who find a groove and spend a career mining that vein. I seem to be exactly the opposite.

If the only ideas you had were your own, you'd be very limited.

I like people to have their own reaction and their own take on things. And I don't like to shove my - what I want them to feel or think - down their throats. I like people to say, 'What was that about?' or 'Why did that happen?' And so, any reactions are welcome.

With docs, there's often a very direct communication between the filmmaker and the audience. With narrative movies, we leave it a little bit more open.

When you build your network, keep yourself open to new ideas, concepts, and theories. Some of them may even contradict and challenge long-held points of view. This isn't beneficial only to someone in my profession, but to every line of work.

A lot of people get pigeonholed because it makes it easier to understand them - or assume you understand them. I think the way you break away from that is by constantly doing different jobs.