Ramy Youssef Quotes

Just because we finally have a Latino family on TV doesn't mean we're up there to lecture people about what it means to be Latino.

Children of color need a mirror to see themselves in. And then people who don't have that experience, they need a window. They need a really personalized way to see what people who are different from them are going through.

It is through accepting other people in our own countries that we shall come to respect our neighbours and be respected in our turn.

I'm a British intern going in. I'm hoping that John will just kind of tackle it from who this person is and what she's about rather than trying to go in on her culture. We need to move a step forward than that.

I remember while I was at school some of my Muslim friends talked about a handful of people spoiling things in every culture. Hatred or hurt or pain isn't specific to a religion. I think it's a matter of acceptance. The one thing the world has to accept is everybody is different. What is normal to us is different and unusual to somebody else.

America is grappling with cultural diversity, and I just want to put a show on that represents the world in which I live.

It's funny, because I've never thought of myself as a Hispanic actor, like in 'American Gangster,' I'm playing an Italian. I've always been fortunate enough to have been allowed to play all these diverse roles.

Of course we've been fighting against stereotypes from Day One at East West. That's the reason we formed: to combat that, and to show we are capable of more than just fulfilling the stereotypes - waiter, laundryman, gardener, martial artist, villain.

Being black, Latino, or Asian is not a genre. Romantic comedies, thrillers, action - those are genres. I think there's a lot of people who want to have the conversation. I don't think people are afraid of it, I just think it's the time to have that conversation. Race is not a genre.

I feel like elements of race and identity and ethnicity are sort of missing in all of literature, not just in women's literature.

I think American audiences are open to people with accents and different nationalities being on the screen.

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.

In a lot of films, they're showing more complete, developed characters of diverse ethnic backgrounds. The larger concern is to be able to tastefully explore the stereotypes, and still move past them to see the core of people.

Jewish, black, Filipino, whatever the specificity is, it's specificity that makes a good story. And I think people are tired of seeing the same old shtick on network television. It's just a group of white people hanging out talking about their jobs. Who cares? We've seen that.

My entire career, in fiction or nonfiction, I have reported and written about people who are not like me.

The challenge facing America in the next century will be the shaping, at long last, of a truly common public culture, one responsive to the long silenced cultures of color.

Your look changes depending on your confidence, and then your beauty changes. When I first came to New York, all the people were saying, 'You look so Asian because you have a different eye shape.' They didn't really understand because they didn't really see that many Asian models.

The theatre should reflect America as it's lived in today. And that is a multicultural America.

It's important to tell the story you're telling in the right way, which might involve black people or people of whatever heritage or ethnicity - or it might not.

For a while, I was feeling like I was always playing characters that weren't specifically Korean or specifically Asian, even - that they were characters who were originally written white, and then they would cast me. And I used to consider that a badge of honor because that meant I had avoided stereotypes.

When people see 'bisexual,' they still confuse it with promiscuity, which is so wrong. So I was so pumped to be the first bisexual on Riverdale and just normalize that for viewers.

We all had to dodge the idea we were spokespeople for our races. Like, 'Hey, it's the Mexican Guy! The Filipino! The Chick!' We've always stood up to it and said, 'Fine, bring it on and we'll show you how we rock.'

Something I love about 'Teen Wolf' is that my character is written in as just a normal girl. She could have been any ethnicity; she doesn't have to be Asian.

I want to change the perception about Latinos worldwide. I think people don't know yet how cool we are.

You just never see people of different ethnicities in period dramas.