Betty DeGeneres:

If we all focused on being grateful for every day and looking for the good in everything and everyone around us, much of our hate and bigotry and fear would fall away.

Love, Ellen, p. 364

Don Lemon:

Whatever your religion, though, if your idea is to wipe someone out, I'm betting you're going against God every time.  If that's the way it is, if we're all going to wipe out everyone who doesn't believe the same exact things we do, well, that's it for us.  We're talking about the end of the world because we're not ever going to all believe the exact same thing.

Transparent, p. 196

Carl Jung:

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

Meredith Baxter:

Whenever anyone comes out, prominent or not, it lays the groundwork for social change and acceptance.

Untied, p. 282

Sarah Schulman:

Oppressed people, people unfairly excluded from full participation, cannot have their rightful place until the people who exclude them experience a diminishment of their own access and power.

Ties That Bind, p. 51

Anthony Trollope:

Never think you're not good enough.  A person should never think that.  People will take you very much at your own reckoning.

Austin Kleon:

What makes you interesting isn't just what you've experienced, but also what you haven't experienced.  The same is true when you make art: you must embrace your limitations and keep moving.

"How to Steal Like an Artist (And 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me)"

Paul Monette:

Go without hate, but not without rage.  Heal the world.

Hugh MacLeod:

The best way to get approval is not to need it.

Evil Plans, p. 153

Don Lemon:

Allowing a political affiliation to completely define who you are and what you believe is too simple for me.  It's like wearing only one suit, which is something I couldn't image ever doing as long as I had a choice.

Transparent, p. 172-173

Betty DeGeneres:

Above all, I've learned that there's nothing so important and so wanted as a parent's love.

Love, Ellen, p. 344

Sarah Schulman:

If a critical mass of straight people withdraw from discriminatory social institutions until they are available to gay people, those institutions will cease to have social currency.

Ties That Bind, p. 49

Czesław Miłosz:

When a writer is born into a family, the family is finished.

Austin Kleon:

Art is all about the slow accumulation over time.  Writing a page one day doesn't seem like much.  Do it for 365 days and you have a big novel.

"How to Steal Like an Artist (And 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me)"

Meredith Baxter:

A woman was talking about our parents as wells and that we were wired to go to our parent-wells for nurturing and sustenance.  Many of us found our parent-wells were empty, but they weren't empty at us.  They were just empty.

Untied, p. 251

Hugh MacLeod:

Every time I tried acting normal it gave me the feeling that I was being poisoned...

Evil Plans, p. 146

Don Lemon:

Whether it's coming from a white person or a black one, black box thinking is reductionist at best.  They're reducing the person, in this case, me, down to their own preconceived notions about what he must believe without giving him a chance to show his individuality.

Transparent, p. 171-172

Betty DeGeneres:

The key to building a bridge to acceptance by heterosexuals is coming out.  As people begin to realize that acquaintances, coworkers, service people, and professionals they already know and like happen to be gay or lesbian, their ignorance and fear will vanish, as it should.

Love, Ellen, p. 341

Sarah Schulman:

What is most difficult to face, but increasingly obvious as gay visibility provokes containment, but not equality, is that homophobes enjoy feeling superior, rely on the pleasure of enacting their superiority, and go out of their way to resist change that would deflate their sense of supremacy.  Homophobia makes heterosexuals feel better about themselves.

Ties That Bind, p. 47

Thomas Wolfe:

My purpose as a writer is to loot my life to the very walls.

Austin Kleon:

Freedom from monetary stress means freedom in your art.

"How to Steal Like an Artist (And 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me)"

Rachel Held Evans:

The Bible is perfection crammed into imperfect language, the otherworldly expressed in worldly ways, holiness written down by unholy hands, read by unholy eyes, and processed by unholy brains.

Evolving in Monkey Town, p. 189

Hugh MacLeod:

Death is what gives life its edge.

Evil Plans, p. 139

Don Lemon:

Journalists, whether they are holding cameras or notepads, help people give voice to what they are experiencing.

Transparent, p. 155

Betty DeGeneres:

I've heard it said that with the word "heterosexual" the accent is on "hetero" and with the word "homosexual" the accent is on "sexual."

Love, Ellen, p. 333

Sarah Schulman:

...the system of supremacy into which straight people are inaugurated is so persuasive, so dominant in its invisibility, and therefore unidentifiable, that parents and siblings and other relatives are often not individual enough to transcend its inherent cruelties.

Ties That Bind, p. 44

Nicholas Lore:

It takes courage to be the author of your life.

Austin Kleon:

The thing is: art takes a lot of energy to make.  You don't have that energy if you waste it on other stuff.

"How to Steal Like an Artist (And 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me)"

Rachel Held Evans:

The Bible has been, and probably always will be, a relentless, magnetic force that both drives me away from my faith and continuously calls me home.

Evolving in Monkey Town, p. 189

Hugh MacLeod:

Your average product might be useful, offer good value, and all that market-friendly stuff, but the best Evil Plan offers something much more for people -- a chance to buy into an idea that matters, and share it with people who matter to them.

Evil Plans, p. 127

Don Lemon:

Much as some would like us to believe differently, there really isn't any "us" and "them" in this world.  We're all "us" with the same basic fears and hopes.

Transparent, p. 153