Taboo Quotes

The difference that a drama group or a cinema club can make to a small village or a town. It opens people up to ideas, potential about themselves that really, in a way, education often fails to. It's a way of drawing a community together.

You know, the interesting thing about having traveled around the country as much as I have, and I think it's sort of inadvertently what made me come out or at least begin doing things within the community and thinking more about that, was that I get to travel quite a bit.

Organize, agitate, educate, must be our war cry.

What I always wanted to do when I was a kid was to speak out and help people which I continue to do afterwards.

Maybe subconsciously I've kept activism separate from acting because it's important to me in a more profound way.

It's really important to me to promote worthy causes. But not in a heavy, obligatory, responsibility way. I really admired that as a kid, learning about the 'Elton John AIDS Foundation.' And I was obsessed with The Indigo Girls. And they are the consummate activist group, always reaching out, especially to Native causes and things like that.

People come to the Fountain Theatre because they've got hearts that are working and they've got heads that are working. They use the Fountain Theatre because it puts them in touch with the world that they're living in.

Women tell me they are different since 21 May - the day I was arrested - it's a positive change, they believe now.

I'm proud to say I was part of a movement in which we sang 'All You Need Is Love' at political rallies.

I used to sort of consider myself a feminist, an environmentalist, and I still have some of that in me, but I've done so many offensive comedies, I'm now worn down to a little nub of... nub of an activist.

When I was in junior high school, friends and I were in a consciousness-raising group, a term that now seems quaint like a butter churn, but it was very powerful. It was a really wonderful experience.

Colin Kaepernick had a... maybe he had an epiphany. Maybe he had a realization that 'I have a higher calling the playing quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers.'

'Marley Dias Gets It Done - And So Can You' is a book about how girls who are 10 and up - and everyone who is 10 and up, basically - can use their gifts and talents to help the world in a way that's unique to them.

The Women's March moved me.

My drama teacher when I was a kid called me 'Zawe the activist' and I had no idea why. Now I've got older I can see why she always saw that in me.

I was very engaged in my communities throughout college, but I never thought of it as political.

I actually went to the frontline to be with my brothers at Standing Rock.

My kids have lived experiences that could have never been duplicated otherwise. That's one thing about people who get involved in activism, you live so many experiences that otherwise they wouldn't be there. This is why peoples' lives are so enriched.

I knew that my newfound activism and feminism was going to improve my acting, because I was seeing things not just in very narrow, individual, kind of Freudian terms, but seeing them in a much broader, societal way that was going to deepen and enrich my talent.

I began to realise that we are all oppressed which is why I would like to do something about it, though I'm not sure where my place is.

I once dreamed of launching revolutions, sparking movements, mobilizing the masses, and changing everything. Now I’ve learned the beauty and profound significance of simply loving my neighbor.

I would like to flood South Africa with black personages of all sorts of persuasions: writers, educators, businessmen, you name it. If you are black and have any clout at all, I would like to see you go to South Africa and look for yourself and come back and try to use the tools that you have at your command to try and help the brothers down there.

If you really want to see change, and have change, you're going to have to get involved.

You can't sit around and wait for somebody to say who you are. You need to write it and paint it and do it

I was very proud to be part of the Million Man March. I think it's one of the best things that I ever did. Just the fact that, you know, at the time I didn't pay close enough scrutiny to some of the other things that he was saying. You know, that's something I just live and learn.