Barack Obama Quotes

There's drama in everything. That's why I love movies. Like 'Welcome to the Dollhouse.' I'm a 350-pound black man, and I could understand what it was like to be a little white girl.

We meet aliens every day who have something to give us. They come in the form of people with different opinions.

I mean I think children love the idea that there are different viewpoints and different words for things and different worlds. And the more that they pretend to be other people, the harder it is for them to hate them and misunderstand them when they grow up.

Trying to imagine what it's like to be someone else is never a substitute for actually living that way, for acknowledging the respect that we need to have for each other's experiences.

To me, race is not all about grievance. It is also about pride and empathy and humanity and understanding the value of difference. But along with that, there are also expectations that we should set for ourselves and for others. We should expect to be treated as equal citizens.

I feel like the world would be a better place if more people experienced a little bit of someone else's experience.

And rather than judging and alienating others, I do think there's an opportunity that no one is taking, myself included, to actually understand why somebody is coming from a certain place.

I try to support groups that are about educating people about different races, different religions, different cultures and different situations so that we can break down the barriers of prejudice and bigotry.

I think a lot of the source of how people are treated depends on the fact if someone recognizes them as a human being or not, you know what I mean?

Solidarity is the basis of my politics.

This is what I tell my students: step outside of your tiny little world. Step inside of the tiny little world of somebody else. And then do it again and do it again and do it again. And suddenly, all these tiny little worlds, they come together in this complex web. And they build a big, complex world.

I think more tolerance, more people having more access to a chance to be literate, and a chance to stay healthy makes for a more peaceful planet.

We can be more inclusive.

I try to make my books reflect humanity as I see it.

My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too.

All I know for sure is that issues like race, like class, are always best approached with compassion and open-mindedness.

I don't like people being cautious and tentative and choosing their words carefully around me because I'm a dwarf.

Through books and photographs, I saw a world that was not my own - and I realized that there was another world. That's why I'm concerned about education, because it helps our children see other worlds.

It's great to express yourself and tell other people's stories and get into the minds of people who aren't like you.

I make films about black women and it doesn't mean that you can't see them as a black man, doesn't mean that he can't see them as a white man or she can't see them as a white woman.

Books teach children to see the world through the eyes of others and empathise with others. It's about the story.

To be a good citizen, it's important to be able to put yourself in other people's shoes and see the big picture. If everything you see is rooted in your own identity, that becomes difficult or impossible.

People always ask 'Why is Bubba different?' They're just trying to figure it out.

I'm here not just as an actress but as a woman, an African-American, a granddaughter of Ellis Island immigrants, a person who could not have afforded college without the help of student loans and as one of millions of volunteers working to re-elect President Obama!

Equal opportunity does not come from tolerance; it comes from acceptance.