inclusivity in storytelling Quotes

You don't want the white men to be written in a three-dimensional way but the black men, not. I mean, it's just about [how] scripts should always reflect real human beings. So that's what I look for.

Diversity in literature is, in part, about representation - who is telling the stories and who stories are told about.

Growing up, I didn't receive the representation that I wanted so badly. I was always looking out for black characters - black women - that were specifically just about existing and weren't necessarily racialized or were centered around race.

Books transmit values. They explore our common humanity. What is the message when some children are not represented in those books?

The more gay people can tell our stories, the more other people will accept gay people.

But George Lucas is carrying about Black actors, about Black men, about Black history, which really incorporates and tells all of history. You can't take one race out without eliminating every other race if you're going to tell the story of the human race.

I think that's why it's difficult for women when they watch TV and we see one version of a woman who is attached at the hip to a guy, and that's kind of her whole thing. You kind of go, 'I don't relate to this, I don't feel this.' You know? Maybe somebody does, but not everyone. That's the other thing about storytelling, is you can't represent everybody. You know, you can't seek to do that. You have to tell stories that you're interested in talking about and characters that intrigue you.

Whiteness is not the default in my fiction.