“When people ask women, ‘How do you go to work and take care of your family?’ you’re somehow suggesting I am not as capable as a man. You’re somehow suggesting that I don’t have as many skills as a man, and you’re also suggesting I am neglecting my life at home.” Shonda in our October issue of ESSENCE magazine
“I’m a Black woman every day, and I’m not confused about that. I’m not worried about that. I don’t need to have a discussion with you about how I feel as a Black woman, because I don’t feel disempowered as a Black woman.” Shonda to the New York Times.
“Yes, it is hard out there. But hard is relative. I come from a middle-class family, my parents are academics. I was born after the Civil Rights movement, I was a toddler during the women’s movement, I live in the United States of America, all of which means I am allowed to own my freedom, my rights, my voice and my uterus.” Shonda at Dartmouth College’s 2014 commencement ceremony
“I remember saying, very almost jokingly, ‘I’m going to take over the world through television. That’s my plan.’ And I said it to my agent, and I said it to my friends and I said it to myself.” Shonda on Oprah’s Next Chapter
“Perfect is boring and dreams are not real. Just … do. So you think, ‘I wish I could travel.’ Great. Sell your crappy car, buy a ticket to Bangkok, and go. Right now. I’m serious.” Shonda at Dartmouth College’s 2014 commencement ceremony
“I was fearless because it didn’t occur to me to be afraid. And that fearlessness saved me. Fear tightens you up and confuses you and makes you react in ways that you shouldn’t, in ways that may that you shouldn’t in ways that may be a detriment to your vision even if they are totally in line with what someone else is thinking.” Shonda in our March 2012 issue of ESSENCE
“To get all Beyoncé about it, people: ‘I woke up like this.'” Shonda at The Hollywood Reporter’s Power Women event
“We don’t have time to be terrified. I don’t even want men wishing they could be women. I just want those words—’all of that’—to apply to all of us.” Shonda at the Global Women’s Rights Awards
