Cynthia Nixon quotes: on sexuality, school, surviving cancer and more.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
“When you experience pain early on, some people really interface with that pain and try and unpack it, and some people just take it and squelch it down and try and be as successful as they can. And, you know, encourage everybody, ‘Don’t dwell on the negative! Come on, buck up!'”
“Take your anger and make your point creatively and with humor. It’ll go a lot further.”
“This is not a time to settle for the way things are, or sit back and hope for things to change. This is a time to fight.”
“I do tend to be an analyzer. I’m an old English major from way back, so I do have fun tearing apart texts and trying to find the hidden secrets and the subtexts in there.”
“It’s nice to be asked about things that are just purely my opinion – you can’t get them wrong.”
“We’re redefining how politicians work together. We’re trying to bring each other along because we’re stronger that way. The more we help each other, the better off we are.”
“I think there is very much a sense that all these seeds that we have been sowing for so long are now really blooming. We just have to keep at it.”
“Women’s health needs to be front and center – it often isn’t, but it needs to be.”
“Cancer is really hard to go through and it’s really hard to watch someone you love go through, and I know because I have been on both sides of the equation.”
“Now I have a third must-do on my list of things to do with cancer, and it’s this: follow your gut, ask questions, don’t be complacent.”
“Talk with your doctor, make healthy lifestyle choices and most importantly, know your body – as that can make all the difference in the world.”
“A couple of hanging glands have nothing to do with making someone a man.”
“Motherhood is the only thing in my life that I’ve really known for sure is something I wanted to do.”
“I’m a very big public school advocate.”
“I’ve spent 17 years as the spokesperson for the Alliance for Quality Education.”
“In a school where everyone is famous or rich or whatever, you have a culture, ‘What does your dad do? What does your mom do?'”
“I feel like, being an actor, it is a great way to do your job and be a parent, because you have a lot of freedom. You have a job and then the job ends and than maybe you don’t have another job for a while or maybe you chose not to have another job for a while. For an actor, it’s like maybe you don’t see your kid for two weeks while you are filming but then you might have three months off where you are at home every day and picking him up from school. I find it’s a great thing.”
“I grew up here in a one-bedroom, five-flat walk-up with a single mom. I went to public school. I started acting when I was 12 in order to pay for my college because my family couldn’t afford to. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with celebrity in politics; it gives you a platform, but it’s what you choose to do with that platform.”
“When I grew up here, we didn’t have much money, but I still felt like anything was possible. I had opportunities that I just don’t see for the vast majority of kids today.”
“It’s really fun to dress up, but if you saw me in my every day life, I don’t quite look like this.”
“I don’t define myself. I’m just a woman in love with another woman.”
“I met this woman, I fell in love with her, and I’m a public figure. I just want my relationship to be more for myself… rather than a public statement.”
“When women got the vote, they did not redefine voting. When African-Americans got the right to sit at a lunch counter alongside white people, they did not redefine eating out. They were simply invited to the table. That is all we want to do; we have no desire to change marriage. We want to be entitled to not only the same privileges but the same responsibilities as straight people.”
“I gave a speech recently, an empowerment speech to a gay audience, and it included the line ‘I’ve been straight and I’ve been gay, and gay is better.’ And they tried to get me to change it, because they said it implies that homosexuality can be a choice. And for me, it is a choice. I understand that for many people it’s not, but for me it’s a choice, and you don’t get to define my gayness for me. A certain section of our community is very concerned that it not be seen as a choice, because if it’s a choice, then we could opt out. I say it doesn’t matter if we flew here or we swam here, it matters that we are here and we are one group and let us stop trying to make a litmus test for who is considered gay and who is not.”
“Thank you all for believing and fighting and leaving it all on the field. This is just the beginning. And I know that together, we will win this fight.”
“My private life is private. But at the same time, I have nothing to hide. So what I will say is that I am very happy.”
“I’m not discouraged, I’m inspired, and I hope you are too.”
“Now, I feel wiser and calmer than I’ve ever been.”
“I am definitely as happy as I’ve ever been. Happier, I would say, than I’ve ever been.”
