Todd Haynes Quotes

Living here in North America - I have been Americanized. When I go back home now, there are things that I have far less tolerance for in South Africa. We've come such a long way in terms of race relations and the economy as well as people's willingness to move on. There are still a lot of things that are frustrating about being in South Africa.

I grew up in the 1970s, but I don't think a whole lot had changed from the '60s. Oh, it had changed in the law books - but not in the kitchens of white homes.

We don't have as much prejudice as we did 40 years ago, but today it is more educated.

In the old days, 'controversial' in a relationship meant same-sex or mixed races.

Remember, social progress only happens when those in society's privileged classes choose to give up their status.

I would like to do another piece of fiction dealing with a number of issues: Lesbian parenting, the 1960's, and interracial relationships in the Lesbian and Gay community.

Shaking hands with the Queen of England was a long way from being forced to sit in the colored section of the bus going into downtown Wilmington, North Carolina.

The fact is that racism, despite all the doomsayers, has diminished.

Racial lines, which once were bitterly real, now serve nothing more than marking out a living mosaic of human beings. And even here men of the same color are like the ivory keys of one instrument where each resembles all the rest, yet varies from them in pitch and quality of voice.

Even in 'Hollyoaks,' we were known as 'the black family' as opposed to just 'the new family.' But that's where we are in the world, I guess. It's getting better; everything's heading in the right direction, whether it be race, sex, gender.

I remember being a teenager, I never thought that I'd live in a society that was not segregated. It happened.

I felt 'Brokeback Mountain' re-imbued the love story with an authentic and unquestionable series of obstacles that these men faced. I think that's certainly true for 'Carol' as well.

Watching President Obama, for the first time in my life, one of us was running for president. He seemed like one of us - and I got behind him, and I got excited about his message and what he continues to say he's going to do. The day he was elected president, Prop 8 happened. It was this bizarre dichotomy - world history - good and bad.

I think that seeing as much support as somebody like Obama as a black candidate running for president in a country that historically has had issues with the African-American people, and them having issues vice-versa, is a miraculous thing.

Anything with the title 'Breaking The Barriers' means a lot to us, and to myself in particular, because if it wasn't for those who broke the barrier of color before me, I would not have the opportunity to live the life I'm leading right now.

To me, TV relationships work at their best when there is a deep longing and feelings and interest and sexual attraction that is unrequitable.

The world is less homophobic, depending on where you are in the world... As a gay man I feel very strongly about those issues around the world - there've been huge changes and developments, but there are still places where things are scary.

Sooner or later everyone was driven to love someone they could never have.

It's the ones who resist that we most want to kiss, wouldn't you say?

You're the light I can never have and I'm the darkness you'll never succumb to.

I've wanted to be with you when I didn't have the right to.

I am a lover and have not found my thing to love. That is a big point if you know enough to realize what I mean. It makes my destruction inevitable, you see. There are few who understand that.

We love what we can't have, and we can't have what we love.

And many a poor man that has roved Loved and thought himself beloved From a glad kindness cannot take his eyes.

I gaze lovingly at "Hilal" a love that is reflected through time or what we imagine to be time, as in a mirror. She was never mine and never will be; that is how it is. We are both creators and creatures, but we are also puppets in God's hands, and there is a line we cannot cross, a line that was drawn for reasons we cannot know. We can approach and even dabble our toes in the river but we are forbidden to plunge in and let ourselves be carried along by the current.