Thomas Keneally Quotes

Giving voice to marginalised characters is extremely important to me. I want to explore the pain of disenfranchisement, the social strata and boundaries we create and how to make them more permeable.

I never had a problem with the people I was close to because I was playing football with them, and they knew I could play. It didn't matter that I was a girl.

For those of you who aren't aware I am Jewish, the name might have given it away, and there were no other Jewish kids on my football team, so it was an adjustment for me because the kids didn't exactly love the fact that there was a Jewish kid taking their spot.

The Games are just a nice, positive way to build friendships, camaraderie and, of course, self-esteem. Plus, the Games are a great opportunity for people to participate in sports who normally wouldn't.

Sports is the common denominator in the world that brings everyone together. If there's any one place in the world where there is equality, it is probably sports. That was something that didn't always exist. We've come a long way in sports. Why can't society use sports as a way to bring people together and create change?

Sports are a microcosm of society.

All I can ask from society is that it please stop telling me why I should like sports.

They wanted me to play more sports because they were acutely sensitive to their children being one hundred percent American, and they believed that all Americans played sports and loved sports.

I went to an all boys' school in South London and the only god was sport.

In the end, the great leveler in any sport is performance on the field or on the court. Kids don't care what language players speak or if they eat tacos, rice, or sauerkraut. They don't care if they're white, black, or brown.

Minor sports in the community is fun and recreation for everyone, not just the elite. I think back to my days in minor hockey and those are my fondest memories, having fun.

Fundamentally, footballers don't look around a dressing room and think, 'He's a black player... he's Japanese.' They don't think like that. They think, 'He's a good player; he can help. He's not very good.' I'm not trying to defend anyone's actions, but there are going to be isolated incidents because it's an emotive, passionate sport.

There is a stigma around athletes, and I think the more that us as humans can do to break those, the better.

Gay adults start as gay kids... Now they've got to figure out how to be with each other and be with family, friends, and the communities at school.

We can all play on the court and share the courts with the girls.

It is in nobody's interest that groups should find themselves excluded from society.

Football can help carve a more diverse world.

Since I can remember, being different was always hard around normal people. That's just how it is, whether you have vitiligo, a deformity, or a different way of thinking or dressing. It's going to always be weird for normal people.

Being gay, you're kind of forced to ask, I suppose, very existential questions from a very, very early age. Your identity becomes so important to you because you're trying to understand it, and, I think, from the age of, like, 9, you're being forced to ask questions... that other kids maybe don't have to ask.

A lot of times, we look at people who have disabilities as, 'Oh, we can't invite these people here or there.' And I hate that, because it's inappropriate. It's so weird to me when people say they don't have friends who have disabilities.

The game of basketball brings people together. It really doesn't matter where you are coming from. It's a game all of us love.

In the early stages of being out, you meet all these people from all kinds of backgrounds, and the one thing you have in common is you're all gay, but then you start to realise how different your experiences actually are.

Every young person needs to have a character that they can identify with and feel included by.

I saw in my life what pushed a lot of people to drugs was being an outcast to society, so being gay I related to that.

I watch all sports in some shape or form. When you grow up in a small town, sports becomes a form of you.