A curated register of quotes from under-represented voices.

“ You may be the first, but make sure you're not the last. ”

— Kamala Harris, 2020

“ Life is the input of everyone who touched your life. ”

— Yuri Kochiyama

“ The only way to survive is by taking care of one another. ”

— Grace Lee Boggs

“ In a time of destruction, create something. ”

— Maxine Hong Kingston

“ I did not lose myself all at once. I rubbed out my face over the years. ”

— Amy Tan, 1989

“ Why not me? ”

— Mindy Kaling, 2015

“ Sound is a social currency. ”

— Christine Sun Kim

“ Growing up in the Western world, there are so many times where I'm like, Oh, I'm not white. My name is not that easy to say. I'm not as relatable as a white person. ”

— Rina Sawayama, 2020

“ For the longest time I was trying to be white and fit in, that's also fine at some points in your life, I had to do that to survive in certain spaces. ”

— Rina Sawayama, 2020

“ Ladies, don't let anybody tell you you are ever past your prime. ”

— Michelle Yeoh, 2023

“ I'm not OK with someone writing the Asian experience for an Asian character. ”

— Awkwafina, 2019

“ I'm definitely not all Asians, but the thing that I've always done is aggressively been myself. ”

— Awkwafina, 2018

“ I didn't wake up and decide to become an activist. But you couldn't help notice the inequities, the injustices. It was all around you. ”

— Yuri Kochiyama

“ Remember that consciousness is power. Tomorrow's world is yours to build. ”

— Yuri Kochiyama

“ We are beginning to understand that the world is always being made fresh and never finished; that activism can be the journey rather than the arrival. ”

— Grace Lee Boggs

“ I do hope that people can relate and understand it's O.K. to not be O.K., and it's O.K. to talk about it. ”

— Naomi Osaka, 2021

“ There are people who can help, and there is usually light at the end of any tunnel. ”

— Naomi Osaka, 2021

“ I think having a baby sliced out of you is pretty hardcore. ”

— Ali Wong, 2015

“ As a deaf person living in a world of sound, it's as if I was living in a foreign country, blindly following its rules, customs, behaviors, and norms without ever questioning them. ”

— Christine Sun Kim

“ I truly believe American Sign Language is important because from the beginning, when a child is born, if they learn ASL, they have full access to information. ”

— Christine Sun Kim, 2017

“ We need to start focusing on bravery over perfection. We're raising our girls to be perfect, and we're raising our boys to be brave. ”

— Reshma Saujani, 2016

“ This whole thing is a talent issue. Women is a talent issue. It's not a gender issue. ”

— Indra Nooyi

“ To be pleasant, gentle, calm and self-possessed: this is the basis of good taste and charm in a woman. But women who are too vain and act pretentiously, to the extent that they make others feel uncomfortable, will themselves become the object of attention. ”

— Murasaki Shikibu, 1010

“ Bravery, not perfection, gives us permission to be ourselves. ”

— Reshma Saujani, 2016