Shonda Rhimes Quotes

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Shonda Rhimes

Profession : Producer

Birth : January 13, 1970

I like people with their own opinions, and I like people who argue with me. It's very exhausting to be in a room full of people who just nod and smile.

Shonda Rhimes

My poor children have been the subject of all of my experiments. We're still doing what I call 'Amish summers' where I turn off all electronics and pack away all their computers and stuff and watch them scream for a while until they settle down into, like, an electronic-free summer.

Shonda Rhimes

I love having boyfriends. I love dating. I do not want a husband in my house.

Shonda Rhimes

My father used to say to me, 'The only limit to your success is your own imagination.' I actually believed that - like, I'm still coming to terms with the fact that I might not be an Olympic figure skater.

Shonda Rhimes

There are stories to be told that are still untold and characters to be portrayed that haven't been portrayed correctly. So there's work to be done.

Shonda Rhimes

I'd split up with a boyfriend and gone to Vermont to stare at my navel, and then 9/11 happened, and I spent days being scared of what was happening in the world. So I made a list of all the things I wanted to do, and at the top was adopt a baby. Nine months and two days later, I brought my daughter home.

Shonda Rhimes

The beauty of being a feminist is that you get to be whatever you want. And that's the point.

Shonda Rhimes

A hashtag is not a movement.

Shonda Rhimes

A lot of people think that they are leaders just because they have been placed in charge of something - and you're not.

Shonda Rhimes

The idea that the more you hide something, the more it becomes something that's supposed to feel shameful is very true.

Shonda Rhimes

The entire world is skewed from the white male perspective. If you're a woman, they have to say it's a female-driven comedy. If it's a comedy with Latinos in it, it's a Latino comedy. 'Normal' is white male, and I find that to be shocking and ridiculous.

Shonda Rhimes

The secret sauce of the business that I can offer is my creativity, and in order to keep my creativity alive and fresh, I have to pretend that no one is watching the show, that there are no audiences, there are no ratings; I'm just telling a story.

Shonda Rhimes

There is a part of me that's oblivious. People always ask me, 'What obstacles have you faced?' and I always think, 'What are you talking about?' Whether or not there were obstacles, I never saw obstacles. It's never occurred to me that I wasn't good enough for something.

Shonda Rhimes

I'm just obsessed with 'Game of Thrones,' especially Arya Stark. And I love 'Orange is the New Black,' although I just want to inhale that all at once. I keep trying to stretch it out, but it's so hard.

Shonda Rhimes

You have to have more people who don't look like you in the writers room. I try to have some people who don't look like me in my writers room. I think it's important to have a group of voices, of people who can dissent.

Shonda Rhimes

My worst trait is that I'm an introvert. When I've led stuff, the hardest thing for me to overcome has been my natural desire to run and hide. I'm very proud of the fact that I have been able to do that.

Shonda Rhimes

I really do feel like the work and time we spend avoiding having difficult conversations is so much more wasteful and painful and time-consuming than actually having the difficult conversation.

Shonda Rhimes

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

Shonda Rhimes

Calling a show a 'guilty pleasure' is like saying 'I'm embarrassed to say I watch it but I can't stop.' That's not a compliment.

Shonda Rhimes

That first year I was doing 'Grey's,' I didn't know it was possible to fire the creator of a show off their own show, so I didn't behave like somebody who was afraid of being fired.

Shonda Rhimes