Memorable Quotes from Janelle Monáe
6 quotesChallenging Barriers to Achieve Dreams
Karl Zielinski
Mary, a person with an engineer's mind should be an engineer. You can't be a computer the rest of your life.
Mary Jackson
Mr. Zielinski, I'm a negro woman. I'm not gonna entertain the impossible.
Karl Zielinski
And I'm a Polish Jew whose parents died in a Nazi prison camp. Now I'm standing beneath a spaceship that's going to carry an astronaut to the stars. I think we can say we are living the impossible. Let me ask you, if you were a white male, would you wish to be an engineer?
Mary Jackson
I wouldn't have to. I'd already be one.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Establishing Rules of Love and Pride
Teresa
Aright. Water for me, and a little gin for you. Boy please. I know Juan used to give you that gin, but we ain't doing that up in here Chiron. You don't think my joke was funny? What's wrong?
[chuckles; pause; pause]
Chiron
Nothing. I'm good.
Teresa
No. I done seen good, and you ain't it. Stop putting yo head down in my house! You know my rule. It's all love and all pride in this house! Do you feel me?
Teresa
I can't hear you. Do you feel me?
[scoffs]
Chiron
Yeah.
[quietly]
Teresa
Okay.
Chiron
I feel you.
[firmly]
Teresa
Aright.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Unexpected Car Trouble in a Difficult Situation
State Trooper
Not a great place for the three of y'all to be havin car trouble.
Mary Jackson
We didn't pick the place, Officer, it picked us.
State Trooper
You bein disrespectful?
[glaring at Mary]
Mary Jackson
No, sir.
State Trooper
You have identification on ya?
Katherine
We sure do. We're just on our way to work. At Langley. NASA, sir.
Dorothy Vaughan
We do a great deal of the calculating getting our rockets into space.
State Trooper
All three of ya?
Mary Jackson
Yes, Officer.
State Trooper
NASA. That's somethin'. Had no idea they hired...
Dorothy Vaughan
There are quite a few women working in the Space Program.
[politely; the Trooper meant something else]
State Trooper
Damn Russians are watching us right now. Sputniks. You girls ever meet those astronauts? The Mercury Seven?
[turning his attention back]
Mary Jackson
Absolutely.
State Trooper
Alan Shepard? John Glenn?
Katherine Johnson
We work with those gentlemen all the time.
State Trooper
Those boys are the best we got. That's for sure. We have'ta get up there before the Commies do. Whole damn country's countin on em.
Dorothy Vaughan
That's for certain.
Mary Jackson
Hard to be of service broken down on the side of the road, though.
State Trooper
That's right. That's right. You need a tow or somethin'?
Dorothy Vaughan
No, thank you, Officer. I think I got it, right here. Just have to bypass the starter. That's a girl. We're all set.
[Dorothy touches the screwdriver to between the battery poles; the car starts.]
State Trooper
Hell, least I can do is give you an escort. Imagine y'all are runnin late to work.
Katherine Johnson
Oh, we wouldn't want to trouble you-
Mary Jackson
That would be wonderful, Officer.
State Trooper
Follow me.
Mary Jackson
I'm drivin'. Hurry up, Dorothy, before he changes his mind.
Dorothy Vaughan
Slow down, Mary! You're too close!
Mary Jackson
He said to follow him.
Dorothy Vaughan
Doesn't mean you hit him in the ass!
Katherine Johnson
Dear Lord... please... I don't even know where to begin!
Mary Jackson
I'll tell you where to begin: three "colored" women are chasing a white police officer down a highway in Hampton, Virginia, 1961. Ladies, that there is a God-ordained miracle!
Katherine Johnson
Next time, I'm taking the bus!
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Advocating for Equality and Appreciation
Katherine Johnson
How can you be possibly ogling these white men?
Mary Jackson
It's equal rights. I have the right to see fine in every color.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Obstacles to Progress and Equality
Mary Jackson
Every time we get a chance to get ahead they move the finish line. Every time.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Striving for Equality in Education and Opportunity
Mary Jackson
I plan on being an engineer at NASA, but I can't do that without taking them classes at that all-white high school, and I can't change the color of my skin. So I have no choice, but to be the first, which I can't do without you, sir. Your Honor, out of all the cases you gon hear today, which one is gon matter hundred years from now? Which one is gon make you the first?
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.