Deborah Tannen Quotes

People will sometimes put each other in boxes and have biases toward one another because of what they look like or where they come from or who they are. But ultimately, it's up to us to decide who we are.

I think people are as individual as snowflakes, they kinda look alike but no two are the exactly the same, and all classification is the root of prejudice.

Not only do I not want to be stereotyped as this Asian girl who fights - gee, what a wonder - but also I have more to offer than that.

I think the only universal thing is one individual. If you talk about a country or a nation or a culture, it's so vague. I mean what is a nation? A nation is full of nice and bad and long and tall and short and thin people. It's not like everybody is the same.

I don't believe in typecasting. Just because all my characters may come from the other side of the tracks doesn't mean they are all the same. You don't stereotype people and generalize people, everyone's different.

Instead of being presented with stereotypes by age, sex, color, class, or religion, children must have the opportunity to learn that within each range, some people are loathsome and some are delightful.

I come from a place where I find it hard to identify with a label.

It's human nature that we come in our own flavours, and it doesn't make any sense to write a monochromatic or monocultural story unless you're doing something extremely small - a locked room-style story.

I think one of the things you have to learn if you're going to create believable characters is never to make generalizations about groups of people.

I think people feel threatened by homosexuality. The problem isn't about gay people, the problem is about the attitude towards gay people. People think that all gays are Hannibal Lecters. But gay people are sons and daughters, politicians and doctors, American heroes and daughters of American heroes.

I used to think that anyone doing anything weird was weird. I suddenly realized that anyone doing anything weird wasn't weird at all and it was the people saying they were weird that were weird.

I hate stereotypes and I hate cliche.

We have a lot of historical and religious baggage in our culture. It's ancient; we are clannish as a species. We like things to fit into boxes, and it's unfortunate because humans are unique and should be celebrated and embraced as such.

We are all different. There is no such thing as a standard or run-of-the-mill human being, but we share the same human spirit.

People aren't born racist.

I was too Jewish for 'Flashdance.'

I actually feel sorry for people who have a lot of illusions in their head about what gay is. I mean, I know some gay people who are really wonderful people.

It's interesting to see how we are all uniquely different.

Yeah, I had gay friends. The first thing I realized was that everybody's different, and it becomes obvious that all of the gay stereotypes are ridiculous.

No member of any 'grouping' should be judged by the activity of some other individual in that same grouping.

The greatest lesson I learned that year in Mrs. Henry's class was the lesson Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to teach us all: Never judge people by the color of their skin. God makes each of us unique in ways that go much deeper.

Primates are hardwired for us/them dichotomies. Our brains detect them in less than 100 milliseconds.

I think people respect you for who you are rather than which group you are a part of.

I think people are more than their heritage or their skin colour or their name or how they grew up.

Not everyone is the same. You can't label a person just because of what they do or what they've done.