Brian Tyree Henry Quotes

Audiences want to feel represented, want to be able to empathize with the characters and the stories they are seeing on the screen.

Films are very influential, and I especially feel a responsibility to tell stories that have been pushed aside. Being able to shed light on issues that need to be brought to the world.

It's very important to me that people get to see themselves in stories. When someone tells me they've never seen themselves, I have a new goal.

Diversity is essential to the success of the news industry, and journalists must include diverse voices in their coverage in order to reach a broader audience. We have stories to tell, but many in our audience have stopped listening because they can tell that we're not talking about them.

It's important to not marginalize any people group in fiction. A complete, authentic-feeling world should include many different elements of life and culture. For this reason, my books will almost always contain people of faith.

I know it's 'Dear White People,' and you can imprint all kinds of concessions about what the show might be about on the title, but my goal was never to, like, educate white people. My goal was always to create characters that you can relate to and fall in love with.

When I choose a role, what I'm looking for is the ability is to tell our stories. Me being a black woman, that's just a given. It's going to be a part of any role I do, making sure I tell it truthfully and nuanced and in a way that many people can relate to.

It's really humbling and gratifying to see that people are finally realizing that we are talented and we have things to say and that our stories are just like your stories. There's no reason that anybody from Wisconsin or Turkey can't relate to 'Atlanta.'

Diversity in literature is, in part, about representation - who is telling the stories and who stories are told about.

I think that fiction writers can write about anyone. If you are writing a character, and the only thing they are to you is their otherness, then you haven't written a character.

If we truly seek diversity in fiction, we have to let the needs of others come before our need to define ourselves as social justice allies.

I would like to think that television would be representative of the world we live in.

Audiences want great story telling; it's why white people watch my show 'Black in America.' It's why black people watch 'Latina in America.' All of that is statistically shown and proven but it was because it was good story telling about people who were outsiders.

I think we need to tell stories that reflect our world.

People identify with me - everyone does - African American women, Caucasian women, they all identify with me because I'm ethnic.

I would like to see more films being made with people of color behind the camera and in front of the camera, because the more times at bat we have, the better we get.

I hope that doing truthful portrayals of people in a variety of circumstances gives people a kind of subterranean link to those characters.

In fact, some reviewers have said that as they got into the story they forgot that the protagonist is a black woman. They were moved by the story - by the people as a whole - and not by the little things.

If fiction changes things, it's usually because it's a powerful way of exploring social issues. And it helps us to understand people who are different from us.

CNN, a part of the Time Warner company, lives for news about everything and anyone. In the office, the bosses openly discuss the need for a diverse staff and diverse stories, and each time we draw new viewers, the effort intensifies.

I wasn't the only person out there writing about pop culture and race, but I stayed true to my voice, and people felt attracted to that. They said it felt like they were having brunch with their best friend.

I am Indian, and my home is Kampala. My world is already diverse. But films are financed by those who want to see themselves on screen, and it is a white male world. Still, it does feel like America is waking up. Let's hope it's the start of an avalanche.

A lot of people are not interested in stories in which they don't see themselves.

If the writers all come from the same backgrounds, you are going to get the same sorts of characters. Get a broader variety of writers, and you get a bigger range of stories.

The world in which we live is diverse, and I think television and film should reflect that.