Nate Parker Quotes

I coach a high school wrestling team and a middle school team. I consider myself a coach and an activist, so I’m really involved in the community.

Leadership is one of the things I really strive to excel in in my life.

I think chemistry and great acting go hand-in-hand.

We have a tendency to sugar coat the Civil Rights movement by showing arm in arm and everyone singing ‘Kumbaya’. We don’t really always show the resistance from the government, the resistance from the status quo, from the majority to silence the movement.

So often, when we don’t have people that can be representative or symbolic of leadership and of faith, of purpose, in that absence we become bitter and resentful.

I was very insecure approaching the idea of directing a feature film. I told myself I would not move until I felt I was moving in power rather than moving in desperation to make a movie.

I do believe, as a person of color, the disparities are great. A lot of the roles that were sent to me were ‘Gangbanger No. 1.’ And when a role did come up that I felt carried and represented my community in the best ways, I wasn’t the only one that knew it existed. So I’d have to compete.

Sadly, black people disassociate ourselves from the things which make us who we are, identifying them as lesser, or inferior. It’s a form of self hate. So, with reckless abandon, we strive to be like the majority.

I think patriotism is all about wanting to see America better, wanting to see those are oppressed do better and get treated better.

I’m a perfectionist to a fault.

The crazy thing is a lot of people – a lot of men, if I’m just speaking for myself – don’t really start thinking about the effect of hyper-masculinity and false definitions of what it means to be a man until you get married or until you have kids. Because then, all of sudden, you have something to protect.

Any psychologist will tell you that healing comes from honest confrontation with our injury or with our past. Whatever that thing is that has hurt us or traumatized us, until we face it head on, we will have issues moving forward in a healthy way.

Women have been such an important part of my life. I try, every day, to be a better father to my daughters and a better husband.

I never felt the need to introduce all the obstacles in my past when I say, ‘Hello, my name is Nate.’ But at the same time, I’ve never hidden from it.

I’m a big Hall and Oates fan.

The American dream is more about opportunity than anything else.

We all serve a purpose. My purpose isn’t to be rejected. My purpose isn’t to think small or to be introverted. This door closed is literally pushing me to the next door.

All I can do is seek the information that’ll make me stronger, that’ll help me overcome my toxic masculinity, my male privilege, because that’s something you never think about. You don’t think about other people.

Identify your niche and dominate it. And when I say dominate, I just mean work harder than anyone else could possibly work at it.

I think, at some point, we have to be followers of Christ – not followers of White Christ, or any other color Christ, for that matter.

I, for one, believe that partisanship should have nothing to do with the actions of Christ. You’re either Christlike, or you’re not.

I immediately felt the need, back when I was a managing tech engineer, to attach myself to Nat Turner. And to research him and learn about him and try to find ways into his life that I could apply to my life.