#want

I want to be a figure for prison reform. I think that the criminal justice system is rotten. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#criminal justice #criminal justice system #figure #i #i think

People don't realize what a brilliant politician Lincoln was. Looking back, we want to ascribe a level of providence to his every decision but he was a cunning and calculating politician; from the cultivation of his image as a hayseed from Illinois, to his ability to keep this country together under dire circumstances. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#ascribe #back #brilliant #calculating #circumstances

Because Lincoln is so closely identified with what it is to be American, everyone wants to claim him, to rewrite his story to satisfy their own particular needs. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#because #claim #closely #everyone #him

Because Lincoln is so closely identified with what it is to be American, everyone wants to claim him, to rewrite his story to satisfy their own particular needs. For my own people, it was important to imagine him as the Great Emancipator, the Moses who led us out of slavery. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#because #claim #closely #everyone #great

I want to get into the educational DNA of American culture. I want 10 percent of the common culture, more or less, to be black. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#american culture #black #common #culture #dna

So, Mexico, Brazil, they wanted their national culture to be 'blackish' - really brown, a beautiful brown blend. And finally, I discovered that in each of these societies the people at the bottom are the darkest skinned with the most African features. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#beautiful #blend #bottom #brazil #brown

You can say I had a severe case of 'Roots' envy. I wanted to be like Alex Haley, and I wanted to be able to... do my family tree back to the slave ship and then reverse the Middle Passage, as I like to put it, and find the tribe or ethnic group that I was from in Africa. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#africa #alex #back #case #envy

I want to live as private a life as I can because of our children. ↗

— Melinda Gates

#children #i #i can #life #live

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a clown. I didn't want to be an actor, I wanted to join the circus and entertain people. ↗

— Eric Stonestreet

#circus #clown #entertain #entertain people #i

You see me, I wanted to be fashion designer. I became fashion designer. So I think that everything is possible. ↗

— Jean Paul Gaultier

#designer #everything #fashion #fashion designer #i