Quotes About Empowerment

Today's kids have a mind of their own, and they know how to exercise it. Even if I wanted to tell Sara or my son Ibrahim how to lead their lives - which I don't - they would not listen to me. Luckily, Sara chose to complete her studies before pursuing acting. She attended Columbia University and then devoted her attention to Bollywood.

I didn't want to set up a women's studies program. I thought women should learn to operate in a coeducational atmosphere, because, especially in national security and international affairs, it's male-dominated.

Studies demonstrate that as gaps are being closed between men and women - in access to education, in health, even in economic participation - the most difficult gap to close is in political participation. Somehow that sharing of raw power, political power, remains very illusive.

I ended up going into the Master's program for Asian-American studies at UCLA, in part because I was passionate about it, but also because I wanted to keep acting in the theater group that we founded.

There are so many girls in school who don't know about the opportunities out there. As a graduate, I only realised things about the business world after I completed my studies.

I wanted to become an engineer and I believed in myself. I was the lone girl to enrol for engineering studies, then. But the college provided me an opportunity to excel in my life.

When I came back to Canada after my graduate studies, I founded the first organization in Canada focused on political under-representation and trying to change that, and to support a whole new generation of public policy leaders from marginalized groups.

I think especially in a world where you have so little say about what goes on in your life, or in the politics of the world around you, it is wonderful to go into that studio, and tell yourself what to do.

I feel most confident when I am in a dance studio alone.

If a studio sees that a female can bring in audiences, then they're going to make movies with that person.

That's why I'm really trying to produce my own stuff. This film was so good, because I produced it myself, and developed it, and made it with New Line, which is a smaller studio, so I was in control of a lot of stuff that I wasn't in control of for my other films.

I'm not interested in making a $60-million studio film with a bunch of 24-year-olds telling me what to do.

The reality is that there are so few roles out there for women and for women of color, and I'm a character actor, this I know. And I'm getting to see more of the roles that are out there, but there aren't many. And zilch have been studio movies. Zilch.

Actually, my true name is Rosa Dolores Alverio. And then I became Rosita Moreno when a stepfather stepped in. And when I got to MGM studios, which was my first film contract, they just thought that Rosita wasn't a good name, and they changed it to Rita. And yes, it was their idea.

My movies are not messed with by the studios.

People in big studios are like, 'People want to see other people who are skinny and happy and amazing.' But I think, nowadays, they are realising that what sells is real people from all different backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures and size. People want to see themselves represented on screen, and it's a real cool thing for everyone.

In the old days the studios guided your career. Now it's all up to you.

I don't understand why there aren't more powerful female directors. I don't have the answers, but I hope that things may start to shift and that studios will employ more women to handle strong and interesting material.

The studios aren't lining up to make films about black protagonists, black people being autonomous and independent.

I hate the idea of people thinking that I'm just a little girl who goes into studios with pop producers, and they work their magic.

I'd like to see more female heads of studios because what's also being crucially lost is the female perspective: 50% of the population are not having their stories told.

There's no point in me meeting with a bunch of producers or studios, because I'll write my own scripts in my own time.

'Study' was the cry that reverberated in the corridors of my mind. Study to enable yourself to face the arguments advanced by opposition. Study to arm yourself with arguments in favor of your cult. I began to study.

I thought that the chief thing to be done in order to equal boys was to be learned and courageous. So I decided to study Greek and learn to manage a horse.