Len Wein Quotes

I'm aware of the fact that a lot of talented people out there will never get this chance.

I never came into life with any favours or privileges.

Everyone should have the same opportunity, and in many areas that's not the case because programs are built around the elite.

I don't have the privilege of choice to say, 'I want to work with you,' and the person will say, 'Yes, come on, I will write a film for you.' It doesn't happen for people like me who come from the outside.

Conservatives often say that we should care not about equality of outcomes but about equality of opportunity.

Challengers do not have a level playing field.

You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, “you are free to compete with all the others”, and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk through the those gates.

Government cannot ensure equal results because every individual differs.

It's kind of almost not fair that certain people don't get the opportunities that others get just because of where they are born or where they were brought up.

Our system rewards specific talents more than anything. I got pushed forward for having certain capacities. Others had their horizons systematically lowered for having capacities that our academic system had no use for. I've seen countless people lose heart and feel like they should settle for less, that they don't deserve abundance.

If life were like a competitive race, some people would be given a flying start and others would line up with weights tied to their ankles.

I don't come from a privileged background.

It's not a meritocracy until everyone starts with the same opportunities, is it?

Mitt Romney subscribes to the cynical logic that says the American dream belongs to some of us but not all of us.

I want nothing to do with privilege.

I don't think anybody can claim success at any part of our lives, private or professional, if there are others that don't enjoy the same opportunities.

My feeling is, having lived in different classes, that people want equality of opportunity... that's the thing that makes me despair: the idea that people aren't given equality of opportunity.

If you get so unequal that people believe they don't have a chance, that the field isn't level for them and their children, that puts democracy at risk.

As you would expect when individualism is based only on opportunity, no one asks what happens to those who have neither the financial nor the political clout to exercise their tiny portion of that opportunity.

Substance doesn't do diddly-squat if you don't also have access.

A meritocracy increases inequality --- by its very nature, it has to.

Inequality is an inevitable product of capitalist activity, and expanding equality of opportunity only increases it—because some individuals and communities are simply better able than others to exploit the opportunities for development and advancement that capitalism affords.

Freedom breeds inequality.

What's wrong with being elitist if you are trying to encourage people to join the elite rather than being exclusive?

The white actresses I have known have been allowed to do 10 times more than I shall ever do.