I find a lot of feminist reading quite confusing and that often there's a set of rules, and people will be like, 'Oh, this person isn't a true feminist because they don't embody this one thing,' and I don't know, often it can be a gray area, and it can be a hard thing to navigate.
Lorde
Related I wouldn't say I'm a feminist, but I don't like girls pretending to be stupid because it... AMY WINEHOUSE A lot of people can be cheerleaders for songs and go, 'Oh, that's great,' and they don... BRANTLEY GILBERT I don't like rock. Honestly, I like to listen to it, but it's not for me. There's a lot ... LUIS MIGUEL I've been having a lot of fun exploring different aspects of filmmaking, like writing and produc... OREN PELI It's funny because a lot of people that know me as a dancer, don't know that I'm a singe... NAIMA ADEDAPO I can tell you that you will have your hearts broken more by the people you love than by the people ... MARGARET PETERSON HADDIX I think music naturally wants to be played with more than one person. There's a surprise element... BAT FOR LASHES Life isn't black and white. It's a million gray areas, don't you find? RIDLEY SCOTT Often, if there's something that I want to do, but somehow can't get myself to do, it's ... GRETCHEN RUBIN The only thing that I don't like is my kids watching comedy that isn't actually funny. There... STEPHEN COLBERT I like women who look like women. I hated grunge. No one's more feminist than me, but you don... CATHERINE ZETA-JONES Hard rock will always be hard rock, but you don't really know what is rock - and what isn't ... ALICE COOPER There may be a lot of people out there who don't like me who don't even know me. But there a... RICHARD SHERMAN The wonderful thing about maths is it's a totally logical subject, and a pathway has been marked... MARCUS DU SAUTOY This idea that being youthful is the only thing that's beautiful or attractive simply isn't ... SHARON STONE I think there's so much feeling among young girls where they feel like they have to be this perf... NIALL HORAN He wasn't a great father. He was a great musician. That's always been a touchy one, and it w... JULIAN LENNON I guess people don't think that young girls or young artists have opinions, but I'm so glad ... ALESSIA CARA It could be that people just want to be connected to something that's bigger than they are that ... DWIGHT SCHULTZ I want a guy who's going to be accepting of - one, my big 'ol, loud Mexican family - and als... BECKY G I don't think it's that I don't like Sondheim. It's that I find it really... I don... IMELDA STAUNTON I'm just going to be myself; there's no reason for me to try and go out there and put a cert... PAIGE VANZANT I can't complain that I've had a public all through my writing life, but people don't qu... ALAN BENNETT I don't want to be a historical action figure or treated like I'm dead. Like one of those pe... KATHLEEN HANNA People often can't separate, or can't understand, that to be funny is to be serious; it'... NICK CAVE Are you taking us to the beach?" - Dan Cahill JUDE WATSON I love if someone invites me to a restaurant, so I don't know if that's a feminist. CARINE ROITFELD I don't know if it's the sunshine, or the fact that I actually have a job, but I do like L.A... RICH SOMMER I don't know how people do it these days - paparazzi and that kind of thing. That's somethin... EDDIE VEDDER I'm quite a curious person. I don't mind being the one who doesn't know things, a role I... ALAN DAVIES It's funny to be discovered by a lot of people who didn't know you before. People always use... TERRY O'QUINN Growing up, I've had plenty of obstacles, but to be honest, I didn't always have doubters. I... ROMAN REIGNS I don't know if that's a year's bad luck, or if that's how it works. But stealing a ... ADRIAN MCKINTY I don't know how people box for a living. I don't know how they can just hurt people for a l... MAGGIE Q I've found a woman I can relate to. That's something - and I don't even feel sappy sayin... MARILYN MANSON When I attack a role, be it TV, film or stage, the first thing I say is, I don't want to know an... CICELY TYSON I chose not to put a wig on. The reason why I chose to come out with the cancer thing is because the... SHARON JONES I don't be remembering women that I've met before. I don't remember people as a whole. I... WALE I don't think public life in and of itself can destroy you. I think it's the way people reac... PATTI SMITH I didn't know box office was a thing you could possess but I don't have it. I go up for love... OLIVIA WILLIAMS Feminism to me means fighting. It's a very nuanced, complex thing, but at the very core of it I&... TAVI GEVINSON A lot of people ask me to produce or direct, but I don't think I'm qualified. It's hard ... GONG LI I don't take roles I can't respect. If I can't find a reason to be respectful of the cha... ESTHER ROLLE People ask me what it's like to be tall, and I don't know what to say because I don't kn... ELIZABETH DEBICKI I'm a little sheepish about it. Whenever I meet fans and they're like, 'Oh, you're s... IDRIS ELBA I will be doing a film called Whispers, for Disney. It's about elephants, and doesn't have a... TREVOR RABIN A lot of people don't like to win. They actually don't know how to win, and they don't l... DONALD TRUMP When I go to a sci-fi convention, oh God, it's the closest thing to being a rock star I will eve... NATHAN FILLION I don't know if high society is different in other cities, but in Hollywood, important people ca... MARILYN MONROE It looks ancient," - Amy Cahill JUDE WATSON That is why one day I said my game will be like the Pythagorean Theorem - hard to figure out. A lot ... SHAQUILLE O'NEAL I really can't describe what my stand-up is like - people see it and they say it's like that... DYLAN MORAN What's funny about the slacker thing, people project an image of what they think a musician is: ... COURTNEY BARNETT I'm an untrained musician. Untrained musicians don't really have any music theory, they don&... FRANK BLACK To be feminist doesn't mean you can't be submissive. SAM TAYLOR-JOHNSON It's because I'm a feminist that I can't stand women limiting other women's imaginat... A. S. BYATT There are a lot of people with a lot of money, and I'm amazed they don't understand what a g... ROBERT MONDAVI Well, of course a boxing match is hard because boxing isn't set for you to do good. You have to ... EVANDER HOLYFIELD I can't stop biting my nails. It's a bad habit of mine. I like anything to do with math and ... KHLEO It's definitely a dream come true to be recognized and to be able to sign autographs. But, it... CHRISTINA AGUILERA I really don't make a concerted effort to try to find a type of role. Maybe I've just done e... GREG KINNEAR It's just so hard sometimes to work out where people stand on these things. I mean, isn't th... ELIZABETH JOAN SMITH I don't know if many people know this about me, but I have multiple sclerosis. So I don't ha... NEIL CAVUTO I've always loved music and held it as a sacred thing that I can't touch, as I don't rea... AARON KOBLIN I think about museums often. There are things that I want museums to do that they often don't. F... DOUG AITKEN I don't have too many bad days because I just don't let them happen. When I'm having one... MATT DALLAS I can relax with bums because I am a bum. I don't like laws, morals, religions, rules. I don'... CHARLES BUKOWSKI I don't find it uncomfortable that I'm recognized and liked by so many people. If that were ... SONG HYE-KYO What I don't like so much is people who - how do you say this? - who make judgments over the gen... JOHN DE MOL, JR. Just because we can't find a solution it doesn't mean that there isn't one. ANDREW WILES Every time I do a play, it's as if I've never done one before. I'm always confused. I al... CRISTIN MILIOTI I have a very open mind. I believe that there's a spirit world. I believe that there's a lot... ANTHONY HEAD What I care about is readers because without readers I can't make a living... And I think it'... BARRY EISLER I don't have a bucket list because it is my dedication to live every day of my life there. I don... MELISSA ETHERIDGE You hear younger women say, 'I don't believe I'm a feminist. I believe women should have... GAIL COLLINS There's a lot of things that are good in Scientology, because I wouldn't have been in it. An... LEAH REMINI I don't know why 'happy' can't be a story. FAITH HILL I'm a free speech bigot. I don't like censorship; I just don't think it's a good thi... FRED WILSON I don't really have a type. I don't want to be a cliche. But personality is a big thing for ... ZARA LARSSON There's a lot of places where the image of a cube as a thing of power is pertinent. I don't ... CLIVE BARKER 'Friends' started because Rachel left her husband at the altar. This likability factor is ju... ADAM PALLY It's just a blessing from above. I can't stress that enough, because I don't feel like i... D'BRICKASHAW FERGUSON You know, I don't watch television! Sorry! I actually don't even have a television. I don... BROOKE SMITH It's a hard thing to age a character because you can't really suddenly give someone gray hai... ALISON BECHDEL I don't want to play earnest. I'd rather play somebody who's kind of sleazy. It's mu... JACK COLEMAN Yeah, I just don't break. I don't. And there's only one person I know who's a better... OSCAR NUNEZ I don't want to play everyone's best friend. I don't want to play the role of a girl str... ZOE KRAVITZ I don't know, maybe Australian humour isn't supposed to be funny. It's as dry as the Sah... NICK CAVE Let's head out to the ruins." - Dan Cahill ROLAND SMITH A lot of female comedians will go up there in a sweatshirt and Converses, trying to dress themselves... CARLY CRAIG It's funny when people ask an actor what they want to play next, because you don't get to de... DYLAN WALSH I don't like the word 'urban' because I think it's a bit of a generalisation and the... TAIO CRUZ I really think the biopic thing so rarely works, because people's lives don't have a dramati... BILL CONDON One thing I would say is that I think in any environment that you work in, there's always going ... ALFIE ALLEN Don't you find that the more you know, the more you don't know and can't ever learn beca... LARRY HAGMAN You can't delete racism. It's like a cigarette. You can't stop smoking if you don't ... MARIO BALOTELLI I don't ever want to be caught up in a system of thinking I can do one thing 'cos that's... FRANK OCEAN I think to this day, 'Superman/Wonder Woman' is probably one of the trickiest things I'v... CHARLES SOULE I don't know many women who can relate to Sharon Stone and the kind of movies she does. I don... KIM CATTRALL We often grow up being told that we can do this or that, but if you don't see anybody that looks... JESSE WILLIAMS
More Lorde
I get paralyzingly nervous a lot of times, so I tried bravado. The way I dress and carry myself, a l... LORDE The phrase 'teen hottie' literally makes me want to throw up. LORDE My name is Ella; that's who I am at school, hanging out with friends, while I'm doing homewo... LORDE I'm really interested in kind of weird social situations and cliques, watching girls vying for a... LORDE I am really into how words sound out loud, so I was always the kid who would, like, read the page of... LORDE I read a lot of short fiction, like Kurt Vonnegut and Raymond Carver and Wells Tower. LORDE I'm speaking for a bunch of girls when I say that the idea that feminism is completely natural a... LORDE I'm very conscious of people having pretty short attention spans: I know, I'm guilty of it. ... LORDE When I was trying to come up with a stage name, I thought 'Lord' was super rad, but really m... LORDE I've always been fascinated with aristocracy. I'm really interested in the Ivy Leagues, the ... LORDE Musicians like James Blake were a big influence on me. How he uses his vocals is amazing. And then Y... LORDE I think young people are the most creative and the coolest - people that we should be learning from.... LORDE I curate my life in a way. It's always playing on my mind, kind of a love-hate relationship. I... LORDE Taylor Swift is so flawless, and so unattainable, and I don't think it's breeding anything g... LORDE I've been in some situations where people have treated me like a fascinating toy. You know, it... LORDE Grace Jones was an influence, because I was like, 'These shoulders! These pants! Girls can wear ... LORDE People respond to something which intrigues them instead of something that gives them all the inform... LORDE I'm a pop princess at heart. Pop is about distilling what you want to say and making it easy. An... LORDE Obviously I've had this fascination with aristocracy my whole life. Like, the kings and queens o... LORDE It must have been when I was 14 or 15 that I started tentatively writing songs and was able to conve... LORDE I'm kind of over getting told to throw my hands up in the air, So there. LORDE I actually love Twitter and Instagram. I do think it's so strange to think that 20 years ago, pe... LORDE In a perfect world, I would never do any interviews, and probably there would be one photo out there... LORDE With pop music and pop musicians, you know everything about everyone all the time, particularly thei... LORDE You're the only friend I need Sharing beds like little kids And laughing 'til our ribs g... LORDE I come from a big, loud family, and I'm the quieter one. Performing is something I have to switc... LORDE I started writing music when I was around twelve. My current record company saw a video of me perfor... LORDE I try to stay away from talking about boys all the time. You can go to Taylor Swift to hear that. LORDE I'm a Kiwi. I'm from a beach suburb called Takapuna, which is on the north shore of Auckland... LORDE My dad is a civil engineer, and my mom is a stay-at-home mom. The fact that my parents weren't r... LORDE I love thrift shopping. You can get ten things because everything costs, like, three dollars. LORDE We all have Tumblr, and we all have Instagram and everything. People care so much about it because, ... LORDE If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough. LORDE You know how fighting fish do it? They blow bubbles and in each one of those bubbles is an egg and t... AUDRE LORDE Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political w... AUDRE LORDE I was going to die, sooner or later, whether or not I had even spoken myself. My silences had not pr... AUDRE LORDE When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less an... AUDRE LORDE Institutionalized rejection of difference is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs o... AUDRE LORDE Black and Third World people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expe... AUDRE LORDE Unless one lives and loves in the trenches, it is difficult to remember that the war against dehuman... AUDRE LORDE and when we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard nor welcomed but when we ... AUDRE LORDE Institutionalized rejection of difference is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs o... AUDRE LORDE Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society's definition of acceptable women; those of ... AUDRE LORDE . . . [O]nce we begin to feel deeply all the aspects of our lives, we begin to demand from ourselves... AUDRE LORDE When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and... AUDRE LORDE I am deliberate and afraid of nothing. AUDRE LORDE But the true feminist deals out of a lesbian consciousness whether or not she ever sleeps with women... AUDRE LORDE I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. AUDRE LORDE Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge. AUDRE LORDE I have a duty to speak the truth as I see it and share not just my triumphs, not just the things tha... AUDRE LORDE Revolution is not a onetime event. AUDRE LORDE Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the found... AUDRE LORDE I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so ter... AUDRE LORDE Each time you love, love as deeply as if it were forever. AUDRE LORDE We have to consciously study how to be tender with each other until it becomes a habit because what ... AUDRE LORDE When I use my strength in the service of my vision it makes no difference whether or not I am afraid... AUDRE LORDE In discussions around the hiring and firing of Black faculty at universities, the charge is frequent... AUDRE LORDE Art is not living. It is the use of living. AUDRE LORDE Black writers, of whatever quality, who step outside the pale of what black writers are supposed to ... AUDRE LORDE Life is very short and what we have to do must be done in the now. AUDRE LORDE The learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot. AUDRE LORDE I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made ve... AUDRE LORDE Black women are programmed to define ourselves within this male attention and to compete with each o... AUDRE LORDE Your silence will not protect you. AUDRE LORDE The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. AUDRE LORDE In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and gro... AUDRE LORDE If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for ... AUDRE LORDE There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt. AUDRE LORDE Our visions begin with our desires. AUDRE LORDE The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between th... AUDRE LORDE When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less an... AUDRE LORDE It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate th... AUDRE LORDE When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are ... AUDRE LORDE The failure of academic feminists to recognize difference as a crucial strength is a failure to reac... AUDRE LORDE Only by learning to live in harmony with your contradictions can you keep it all afloat. AUDRE LORDE When we create out of our experiences, as feminists of color, women of color, we have to develop tho... AUDRE LORDE The sixties were characterized by a heady belief in instantaneous solutions. AUDRE LORDE Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge AUDRE LORDE When I use my strength in the service of may vision it makes no difference whether or not I am afrai... AUDRE LORDE If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and e... AUDRE LORDE Attend me, hold me in your muscular flowering arms, protect me from throwing any part of myself away... AUDRE LORDE There's always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself - whether it's Black, w... AUDRE LORDE The quality of light by which we scrutinize our lives has direct bearing upon the product which we l... AUDRE LORDE For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily... AUDRE LORDE We tend to think of the erotic as an easy, tantalizing sexual arousal. I speak of the erotic as the ... AUDRE LORDE The erotic has often been misnamed by men and used against women. It has been made into the confused... AUDRE LORDE My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you. But for every real word spoken,... AUDRE LORDE Even the smallest victory is never to be taken for granted. Each victory must be applauded... AUDRE LORDE Who I am is what fulfills me and what fulfills the vision I have of a world. AUDRE LORDE Silence has never brought us anything of worth AUDRE LORDE As we come to know, accept, and explore our feelings, they will become sanctuaries and fortresses an... AUDRE LORDE I can't really define it in sexual terms alone although our sexuality is so energizing why not e... AUDRE LORDE I would like to do another piece of fiction dealing with a number of issues: Lesbian parenting, the ... AUDRE LORDE It's a struggle but that's why we exist, so that another generation of Lesbians of color wil... AUDRE LORDE There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives. AUDRE LORDE I want to live the rest of my life, however long or short, with as much sweetness as I can decently ... AUDRE LORDE Guilt is not a response to anger; it is a response to one’s own actions or lack of action. If it l... AUDRE LORDE The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house AUDRE LORDE In the interests of separation, Black women have been taught to view each other as always suspect, h... AUDRE LORDE It's possible to take that as a personal metaphor and then multiply it to a people, a race, a se... AUDRE LORDE I speak here of poetry as a revelatory distillation of experience, not the sterile word play that, t... AUDRE LORDE What woman here is so enamored of her own oppression that she cannot see her heelprint upon another ... AUDRE LORDE As a Black lesbian mother in an interracial marriage, there was usually some part of me guaranteed t... AUDRE LORDE The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us to temporarily beat hi... AUDRE LORDE If I participate, knowingly or otherwise, in my sister's oppression and she calls me on it, to answe... AUDRE LORDE I find I am constantly being encouraged to pluck out some one aspect of myself and present this as t... AUDRE LORDE I remember how being young and black and gay and lonely felt. A lot of it was fine, feeling I had th... AUDRE LORDE Tell them about how you're never really a whole person if you remain silent, because there's always ... AUDRE LORDE ... poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the li... AUDRE LORDE We can sit in our corners mute forever while our sisters and our selves are distorted and destroyed,... AUDRE LORDE We can learn to work and speak when we are afraid in the same way we have learned to work and speak ... AUDRE LORDE A Litany for Survival For those of us who live at the shoreline standing upon... AUDRE LORDE In other words, I would be giving in to a myth of sameness which I think can destroy us. AUDRE LORDE When you reach out and touch other human beings, it doesn't matter whether you call it therapy or te... AUDRE LORDE What better way is there to police the streets of a minority community than to turn one generation a... AUDRE LORDE I have died too many deaths that were not mine. AUDRE LORDE It has rained for five days running the world is a round puddle of sunless water... AUDRE LORDE I am the sun and moon and forever hungry the sharpened edge where day and night shall... AUDRE LORDE The black unicorn was mistaken for a shadow or symbol and taken through a cold country where mist pa... AUDRE LORDE young seeds that have not seen sun forget and drown easily. AUDRE LORDE I have been woman for a long time beware my smile I am treacherous with old magic AUDRE LORDE places do not change so much as what we seek in them AUDRE LORDE I am tired of writing memorials to black men whom I was on the brink of knowing weary like... AUDRE LORDE ...may I never lose that terror that keeps me brave AUDRE LORDE see me now your severed daughter laughing our name into echo all the world shall reme... AUDRE LORDE Anger, used, does not destroy. Hatred does. AUDRE LORDE What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say? What are the tyrannies you swallow ... AUDRE LORDE