Guillermo del Toro Quotes

I feel at home in Shondaland. I feel a lot of things at Shondaland, but one of the things I feel that I haven't felt before is at home. I feel accepted for who I am and acknowledged for who I am. I feel like my ideas are embraced.

I think the reason why people loved 'Jem' in the '80s was because it kind of gave them this story of a place to fit in. It's about finding your place.

As many of you know, my story begins where most people's in the LGBT+ community begins... with fear. I knew I was different from my peers, my friends, and those around me when I started to discover who I was and who I identified as from a young age.

Who included me among the ranks of the human race?

I want young people to know that they can belong - whatever your culture, your religion, your sexuality - that you can live life how you want to live it and feel comfortable how you are.

If you don't believe you don't belong.

I love the mixture that's in me. It makes me me. And that's why it's such a shame that people waste energy in denying who they are.

I don't want anyone to ever say that I don't belong where I am.

You know, you don't have to look like everybody else to be acceptable and to feel acceptable.

When I was a kid... I needed to belong.

I think knowing people by first names, not by what they do sexually, is really what it's about. Not being afraid. Fear is the enemy. I've always been comfortable with being gay.

I feel the same way about Shondaland I feel about Africa and Greece. I feel pretty in both places. Men look at me like I'm a novelty, and women think I'm just cool. I feel absolutely at home immediately. I'm not altering myself to fit in. I'm walking in just as I am. And there are open arms stretched out to greet me.

I've gone to normal clubs, straight clubs, and I've gone to gay clubs to party with my friends and fans. There's no difference. I have nothing to prove. I'm very comfortable in my own skin, and I'm thankful to have as many close gay friends as I have, people who have been so supportive in my life and have always been there for me.

I have a big thing about needing to know that I belong - in my group of friends, in my family, in my industry.

There was a time when I was knocking on doors and concerned with being recognized in dominant culture. I've found a space where the terrain is different, where I'm embraced by people like me, and where I'm building new ways of doing things, as opposed to trying to insert myself in a place that might not be welcoming.

When I was in elementary school, I watched 'Cinema Paradiso' 22 times and memorized the dialogue. In the movie, everyone had a place, even the bum who thought he owned the piazza. Eccentricities were celebrated, and no one was isolated.

I've used some of my differences as a way to stand out and to hopefully count and matter - and hopefully create an opportunity for others.

I don't want anybody to feel like they're different.

Some people just want to be accepted.

I would love for 'Hedwig' to be in every tiny shopping mall so every freakish kid like I was can have a broadening experience.

If you happen to be in an environment where people are not accepting of who you are, you just need to know that's not always the way it will be.

If one less kid can grow up without hiding who they are along the way or having to believe that who they love is something that will make them lonely, then everything I went through will be worth it.

We love stories about identity and acceptance because they're so universal.

I always had good reactions from people with a good eye and a vision... and very terrible reactions from those who are afraid of people who are different to others - at the beginning and even now. I have never worried about it too much.

It's hard to accept yourself when you live in a world where nobody is like you, or you feel like nobody is like you because there's no representation.