I'm not in the business of making us look clean, but I don't want us to look like monsters either. I think there is a little bit of hero and villain in all of us. Lena Waithe More Quotes by Lena Waithe More Quotes From Lena Waithe As a black woman in the industry, you really do have to hold your head higher, stick your chest out, be kind and polite and generous even when you don't want to be sometimes. I learned that and, also, just to never take no for an answer. Lena Waithe woman you be-kind black It was a symbolic moment when 'Moonlight' literally took the Oscar out of 'La La Land's' hand. Lena Waithe hand moment moonlight land You have to write and develop and wait for the world to catch up to your art. Lena Waithe wait you world art The '80s really were - talk about no rules. People just did whatever they wanted; they could look however they wanted. There was just a lot of bigness and brightness. Lena Waithe whatever rules look people Being a black person in America is exhausting. Lena Waithe person being black america Always maintain your composure. Lena Waithe maintain your always composure Even white people are tired of watching white people's shows. Lena Waithe watching tired white people People always go, 'Damn, how you got all this happening at once?' I tell them it's the Chicago in me. Lena Waithe go me you people I wrote 'Twenties' back in 2009. I always wanted to tell a story where a queer black woman was the protagonist, and I'm so grateful to TBS for giving me a platform to tell this story. Lena Waithe woman me grateful black With 'The Chi,' it's me observing my own city and also pulling some things from themes I've dealt with in my life. Lena Waithe my-life city me life I hope that people will say that 'she told the truth, she told her truth, she wasn't afraid to live her truth, and she wasn't afraid to live her truth out loud.' That's what I want my legacy to look like. Lena Waithe look truth hope people I never had everything I wanted, but I never wanted for anything. Lena Waithe anything everything never wanted The cool thing about dope black style becoming in style is that the industry has no choice but to try and reduplicate that. Lena Waithe choice cool style black I love a web series. But to me, it does the girl in Detroit a disservice who just watches television. It does a disservice to the girl on the south side of Chicago who doesn't go online. Lena Waithe me girl love television I think once 'Empire' hit, there was a lot of bad black TV that followed, because we work in the business of hit-seekers and copycats, so they're like, 'Oh this is a show about black people; this is about music, OK let's do a version of that.' And, of course, it doesn't work because it's not organic. Lena Waithe music business work people Being on Netflix lets us be experimental. We can do crazy things. Lena Waithe things being netflix crazy Things meant to appeal to the masses usually end up appealing to no one. Lena Waithe masses end things up My mother was born into a segregated America. How crazy is that? Lena Waithe born crazy mother america I had a lot of great bosses - I worked for Gina Prince-Bythewood for two years, I worked for Ava Duvernay as a PA on her first narrative film, and I worked with Mara Brock Akil, so a lot of wonderful role models. Lena Waithe her great wonderful two
