DUSTIN LANCE BLACK

What happens when we put belief in front of reason? When we even put belief above human life?

My mom was paralyzed from polio at the age of 2, abandoned by her husband, left with a 2-year-old, a 6-year-old and a 10-year-old, and so, we were raising her as much as she was raising us.

I think people in the U.K. best know me as the guy who will take their picture when they run into Tom Daley. But I'm also his husband and the dad to our child.

As a Southerner and as a Mormon you approach life in this aspirational way: 'I will rise above my station.'

When I was in my twenties, I would always read my horoscope.

You know, for a long time I became almost atheist. I believed in nothing. And it was tough for me to believe in anything at all because I had believed so strongly. And I divorced myself of spirituality, I think.

Being right is overrated! If someone is saying that they're right about the future, that's a claim only a fool would make.

I have never imagined that I would get married and that I would become a father.

Through my political work in D.C., and having done 'Milk' I got to know a lot of gay octogenarians. They are lovely and they like to tell their stories, and I like hearing them.

People are always going to disagree politically, because we all come at the law from a different perspective with different needs.

If you go to Paris, try to speak French. If you go to the South, try to speak Southern. Southern isn't stupid. Southern is narrative; Southern is family.

The real power of any movement is how we work together with other social justice movements.

I like the gray movies. I don't know if audiences always... it makes them work a little harder. And they have to work hard in 'Hoover.'

One of the great things about being married to my husband, who is also an impossible dreamer, is that we just do things.

Just like my mom, when things get bad, I get quiet. The worse they get, the more silent I become.

Most of my family is still active in the Mormon Church. They live in Utah and Provo and Orem and Salt Lake City.

If you do something with acceptance and kindness, you can create a true friendship.

Too many of my heroes have been cut down, but do I want security guards? No. I've been offered them in the past. But the more you present yourself as someone afraid of being attacked, the more people see you as someone to attack.

I think one of the biggest misconceptions is that this is somehow a stranger who is carrying your child. And this is absolutely not true. Your surrogate becomes one of your best friends and a member of your family.

For people who have fertility issues - and certainly gay men have fertility issues - there's several options for having a child and surrogacy was one of them.

The octogenarians who have pictures of Hillary Clinton under their toilet-bowl covers - they've completely accepted me.

I love Jennifer Connelly.

Some people only look at the good stuff and some people only look at the bad stuff.

My mom achieved so much more than the doctors said she ever would. I miss her.

I was very lucky to hear the story of Harvey Milk, it was life-saving for me. I wanted to share it in case it helped others, but the story of one gay man isn't going to do it.