Identity Representation Quotes

Clothes allow you to see yourself in a different light. They can transform you instantly and have a very real, visceral impact. Clothes become symbolic of who we are.

If I'm performing in the United States, I'm able to speak Spanglish, and the crowd comprehends. If I'm in the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico, then I'm completely Spanish. I feel like a New Yorker that represents all Latinos.

I was afraid that I'd be typecast as the token firang. That happened initially. Now, I am acting in 'Noises Off' and 'Menagerie,' where all of us are playing British and American characters. That makes me feel better.

Since I am a turbaned Sardar, I can only play Sardar roles. Either that or producers should be willing to alter the script to accommodate my physical appearance. But I won't call this a restriction.

I speak about androids because I think the android represents the new 'other.' You can compare it to being a lesbian or being a gay man or being a black woman ... What I want is for people who feel oppressed or feel like the 'other' to connect with the music and to feel like, 'She represents who I am.'

As a matter of fact, I rarely ever play myself.

I've never talked about being Jewish in a promo ever. But my name is just so blatantly a Jewish name. It's not like my name is Maxwell Jacob Smith.

I'm just really excited to expose people to different identities, different conversations but also to kind of reframe how they think about black women just by being myself.

I played a Siamese girl from Thailand. I played an Arabian girl. I did a lot of American Indians. I never, ever was able to do a part without assuming some kind of accent.

I have the LGBT audience behind me, and there's all these people that I want to make proud, and I want to do well aside from just myself.

I purposely didn't change the pronouns in 'Dancing On My Own' so that it was from a gay man's perspective.

What I have wanted to do is take roles that are unexpected for people who look like me. Roles that the establishment would say, 'Oh, she couldn't possibly be that.'

For me, being able to work with somebody who I don't have to translate my experience to all the time - that's important, because I'm not ­having to walk someone down the path of racial understanding to tell a story about a woman of color.

I'm still trying to do films about black women.

I would get a lot of roles for the ethnic friend and then I would go in for that and not be ethnic enough. They wanted an Indian accent. They wanted something more very visually, clearly specific.

Whether you look at 'Glee' and its normalization of gay identity or you look at the work of Martin Scorsese and the Italian-American community, American culture is able to take these stories, which are seen as marginalized, and just turn them into American stories. And you don't think twice about it.

I'd be really honored to do more LGBTQ stories.

I feel like Hollywood likes to use gay people to tell either really sad gay stories starring straight actors, or everything's about a struggle. Everything's about coming out. Nothing was about just living and breathing as a human being who happens to be gay.

All music has political dimensions because it suggests a way of being.

When you use a dialect, you worry that the people you're imitating will think you're making fun of them.

There's no way I can represent for everyone. I can't represent for all women or all big women or all black women. It's important for people not to make celebrities their source of who they should be in life. I can't take on the pressure of being perfect. Nobody is.

I am not the candidate of Black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the woman's movement of this country, although I am a woman and I am equally proud of that.

I don't think America knows what a gay parent looks like. I am the gay parent.

You hold everybody that's Polynesian or Samoan on your shoulders. You want to do your best to represent that in the best way that you can.

The reactions haven't differed; the concerns have been different. When I read for a predominantly Indian audience, there are more questions that are based on issues of identity and representation.