Michelle Obama

Today Jazz music is performed and listened to by people of all ethnicity, backgrounds, ages and creeds.

I hate diversity workshops. Real change comes from having enough comfort to be really honest and say something very uncomfortable.

If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn’t be here. I guarantee you that.

You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.

The difference between a broken community and a thriving one is the presence of women who are valued.

I was the most productive when I was in a flex situation. Do not check for me for needless meetings.

I just love bossy women. To me, bossy is not a pejorative term at all. It mans somebody’s passionate and engaged and ambitious and doesn’t mind leading.

So early in our lives we are shushed. And not just directly shushed but sometimes in our lives we’re treated too preciously. We may have a father that loves us and treats us like a doll. They don’t treat us like real beings and equal partners.

The sadness of the women’s movement is that they don’t allow the necessity of love. See, I don’t personally trust any revolution where love is not allowed.

I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.

If you’re someone who genuinely believes that women don’t deserve or aren’t as much as men, you’re like the plague. On the big history chart, you’re the plague … it’s just pointless and deadly.

The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.

But let me tell you, this gender thing is history. You’re looking at a guy who sat down with Margaret Thatcher across the table and talked about serious issues.

Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.

Women feel more guilt than men, not because of some weird chromosomal issue but because they have a history of being blamed for other people’s behavior. You get hit, you must have annoyed someone; you get raped, you must have excited someone; your kid is a junkie, you must have brought them up wrong.

I wish that girls could fail as bad as men do and be okay.

I am a Woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal Woman, that’s me.

As for my girls, I’ll raise them to think they breathe fire.

Number one, I have great respect for women. I was the one that really broke the glass ceiling on behalf of women, more than anybody in the construction industry.

Woman is the dominant sex. Men have to do all sorts of stuff to prove they are worthy of a woman’s attention.

I wanted to take part in this campaign because it’s so easy to forget the many women who live their lives in fear because of domestic violence. Men have an important role to play in sending out the message that real men do not hurt or abuse their partners.