18 Shonda Rhimes Quotes For Every Bad A$$ B*tch Out There

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Whether she’s giving a commencement address or speaking at the Humans Rights Campaign or talking to us through one of the monologues of her many fascinating characters, Shonda Rhimes is a bad ass boss who knows what’s up. Her wisdom and inspiration focus more on actually getting shit done and living the life you want than they do on having vague, seemingly impossible dreams. She could be dissecting the pain of loneliness or musing on how she refuses to let certain classifications (gender, race, sexual orientation, etc) determine where she’s going to go in life. Whatever she’s doing and whatever she’s talking about, Rhimes is a brilliant, talented, wonderful example for people everywhere on how to get what you want and how to ignore the world when it tries to convince you otherwise. Here are 18 of her best quotes.

“When people show you who they are, believe them. I carry that with me a lot. It has served me well.”


“I really hate the word ‘diversity.’ It suggests something … other. As if it is something special, or rare. Diversity! As if there is something unusual about telling stories involving women and people of color and LGBTQ characters on TV. I have a different word: normalizing. I’m normalizing TV. I am making TV look like the world looks. Women, people of color, LGBTQ people equal way more than 50 percent of the population. Which means it ain’t out of the ordinary.”


“You never know the biggest day of your life is your biggest day, not until it’s happening. You don’t recognize the biggest day of your life, not until you’re right in the middle of it. The day you commit to something or someone. The day you get your heart broken. The day you meet your soul mate. The day you realize there’s not enough because you wanna live forever. Those are the biggest days. The perfect days.”


“If you are a kid and you are out there and you are chubby and not so cute and nerdy and shy and invisible and in pain, whatever your race, whatever your gender, whatever your sexual orientation, I’m standing here to tell you: You are not alone. Your tribe of people, they are out there in the world. Waiting for you.”


“At some point, you have to make a decision. Boundaries don’t keep other people out. They fence you in. Life is messy. That’s how we’re made. So, you can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them.”


“At the end of the day, when it comes down to it, all we really want is to be close to somebody. So this thing where we all keep our distance and pretend not to care about each other, it’s usually a load of bull. So we pick and choose who we want to remain close to, and once we’ve chosen those people, we tend to stick close by. No matter how much we hurt them. The people that are still with you at the end of the day, those are the ones worth keeping. And sure, sometimes close can be too close. But sometimes, that invasion of personal space, it can be exactly what you need.”


“What was great for me about ‘Scandal’ was I had earned a lot of political capital with the network. I had done ‘Grey’s,’ I had done ‘Private Practice.” What were they going to do, fire me? I wasn’t worried about what anybody else thought. This one was for me.”


“A hashtag does not make you Dr. King. A hashtag does not change anything. It’s a hashtag. It’s you, sitting on your butt, typing on your computer and then going back to binge-watching your favorite show. I do it all the time. For me, it’s Game of Thrones. Volunteer some hours. Focus on something outside yourself. Devote a slice of your energies towards making the world suck less every week.”


“Dreams are lovely. But they are just dreams. Fleeting, ephemeral, pretty. But dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It’s hard work that makes things happen. It’s hard work that creates change.”


“The only limit to success is your own imagination.”


“I’m in a position of power where I run this world and handle this situation… If I’m going to make a crazy decision, then I better be damn sure. Because it’s not like anybody’s going to tell me, ‘You can’t do that.'”


“I think it’s sad, and weird, and strange that [race in casting] is still a thing. Somebody else needs to get their act together. And, oh, by the way, it works. Ratings-wise, it works.”


“My dreams did not come true. But I worked really hard. And I ended up building an empire out of my imagination.”


“Ditch the dream and be a doer.”


“I think a lot of people dream. And while they are busy dreaming, the really happy people, the really successful people, the really interesting, engaged, powerful people, are busy doing.”


“Making it through the glass ceiling to the other side was simply a matter of running on a path created by other women’s footprints.”


“Maybe you know exactly what it is you dream of being, or maybe you’re paralyzed because you have no idea what your passion is. The truth is, it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to know. You just have to keep moving forward. You just have to keep doing something, seizing the next opportunity, staying open to trying something new.”


“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.”