Quotes About Empowerment

The Mary J. Blige song is called 'My Life.' It's kinda like an autobiography song, stating what I'm about and what I'm trying to do and what I've done.

I'm trying to break any chain of negative parenting that I might have survived.

I would like people to recognize in looking at my story that the person who has the most to do with what happens to you is you. It's not the environment, it's not the other people who were there trying to help you or trying to stop you. It's what you decide to do and how much effort you put behind it.

We're trying to create people that are going to change the world.

For all my life, I've been trying to tell Madam's story and really it's a labor of love just to make sure people know about her and the empowerment she gave to other women.

Travelling alone gave me time and space, free of the pressures of trying to verbalise experiences, so I could simply feel the joy of my own existence. This was an extremely powerful realisation: I didn't just find strength and solace in being alone, but I learned to love it.

When somebody gives their testimony or tells their story, the next person can be motivated or inspired by it. That's all I'm trying to do.

Growing up in the inner city, a lot of kids didn't think reading was cool. I'm trying to show them that it is cool and the importance of growing and learning outside of their everyday lives, which is a lot of times sports.

What's nice about 'Skinwalkers' is it's allowing an audience to see a different Indian perspective... I think, for myself, I'm trying to put the Indian perspective in a different dimension.

Do you know how many overweight women there are in America? There are a lot. And seeing people like me on the tube makes them feel good.

My 94-year-old grandmother has always been so inspiring to me. She is kind, smart, brave, and independent. After graduating number one in her medical school class at a time when it was extremely rare for women to attend medical school, she worked with the World Health Organization in North Africa to eradicate tuberculosis.

I didn't really feel like a girly girl. I didn't want to wear boob tubes and flared trousers and disco clothes. Then when punk came along it was like, 'Oh great, I can wear ripped jeans and manky t-shirts and flat caps.' It was just perfect timing for me.

I did have reconstructive plastic surgery and a tummy tuck. And from hip to hip, there's a very big scar. It looks better than it did... So I say, if you don't like that skin, have it removed. This is my advice: if you're gonna do it - just go for it.

Politics is rough and tumble everywhere, and many women recoil from that negative aspect of it - the nastiness, the charges and counter-charges.

I don't want to be brain tumor girl. I don't want this to be my thing.

You've got to tune out the other people and tune in to what's going on inside. Love yourself. Nourish your body.

People say all kinds of hurtful things, but I've learned to tune it out the best I can.

People have made comments, calling me names like 'midnight' or 'mother of stars.' At first I confronted the bullies, but eventually I learned to tune out the negativity and just love myself more.

I always tell girls who say they want to start a band but don't have any talent, 'Well, neither do I.' I mean, I can carry a tune, but anyone who picks up a bass can figure it out. You don't have to have magic unicorn powers.

I think body-image issues are not just a dancer thing. I think we're much more in tune and aware because the body is our instrument and art, and we stare at ourselves in a mirror all day, but I feel like it's something that every woman experiences and every girl experiences.

I am deeply in tune with my heart and core, and it's made me a better writer, artist, and most of all woman. It's made me more myself.

When I'm totally in tune with myself, and I'm flowing, it don't matter who I'm fighting; that's just a problem for anybody.

I've been looking for a superhero I could tune into and relate to for years, and when nobody stepped in to take the place of 'Buffy' in my poor soul, I thought, 'Maybe I can create somebody!' That's how 'Headache' came to be.

I am a lot happier, focusing on the production side of things than wanting to be in front of the camera. If I am going to dance to someone else's tune, it might as well be my own.