Stacey Abrams Quotes

By fully committing to our public education system and engaging holistically from cradle to career, we can guarantee that all of our children in Georgia, no matter their needs, have the kinds of teachers and neighbors in their lives that my mother had.

Writing fueled me, and my task was to make it fit into my life. I practiced my trade as an attorney, and on weekends and holidays, I typed away. I assumed a nom de plume, Selena Montgomery, to separate my fiction from more academic publications.

I believe we need leaders who actually want to lead everyone.

My approach to running for office has always been driven by where can I do the most good and where are my skills best applied.

In Georgia and around the country, people are striving for a middle class where a salary truly equals economic security. But instead, families’ hopes are being crushed by Republican leadership that ignores real life or just doesn’t understand it.

The consequences for failure are very different if you’re a woman or a person of color than they are if you’re a guy. If you’re a guy who makes a mistake, you get a second chance. Often, for those of us who are outsiders, we make a mistake, and that’s the end of the conversation.

I come from a family that hunted. I know how to hunt, but I don’t do it.

In her second career as a minister, my mother defied a legacy of chauvinism to become a leader of our community, overseeing a church that served as a hub, offering parenting classes, a food pantry, after-school programming, and – in the wake of Hurricane Katrina – a lifeline to those ravaged by loss.

A guy can try something and not be successful, and it’s just about him. But when you’re a person of color, when you’re a woman, when you’re a woman of color in particular, you mess it up, and other people get tarred by your decision-making. You never act alone.

When I was in high school at the age of 17 – I graduated from high school in Decatur, Georgia, as valedictorian of my high school – I was very proud of myself.

When people doubt your right to be somewhere, the responsibility falls on you to prove over and over again that you deserve to be there.

Facebook captures examples of inequality and makes them available for endless replay. Twitter links the voiceless to newsmakers. Instagram immortalizes the faces and consequences of discrimination. Isolated cruelties are yoked into a powerful narrative of marginalization that spurs a common cause.

Where I think historians can help preserve and actually restore democracy is to remind us of how we got it.

We’re too often told that our mistakes are ours alone, but victory is a shared benefit.

Part of the reason voter suppression works is we’ve created this culture that says you don’t challenge the outcome of elections unless the act is so egregious as to be absolutely clear on its face.

When marginalized groups finally gained access to the ballot, it took time for them to organize around opposition to the specific forms of discrimination and mistreatment that continued to plague them – and longer still for political parties and candidates to respond to such activism.

My being a black woman is not a deficit. It is a strength. Because I could not be where I am had I not overcome so many other barriers. Which means you know I’m relentless, you know I’m persistent, and you know I’m smart.

I have a fairly hefty resume because I’m pretty aggressive about doing things that I think I need to do.

I’m a good leader. I’m a good executive. I’ve been outside the U.S. a few times, and I’ve done a little bit of foreign policy. But most importantly, I’m smart enough to be in charge of this country.

I’m not going to fearmonger to win an election. I’m going to focus on the positive opportunities we have for a bright future for all of our families, where everyone has the freedom and opportunity to thrive.

I reject the idea of work-life balance. The phrase is a bald-faced lie, designed to hang over the human psyche like the Sword of Damocles, because balance presumes an even distribution of weight, of value. But anyone who has ever lived understands that no set of tips or tricks can create a lifestyle equilibrium.

While my parents both worked full-time, we still grappled with the scourge of working-class poverty. But my entrepreneurial mother used her research skills to consult. And, along with my dad, she even ran a soul food restaurant for my great-aunt.

Let’s be clear: Voter suppression is real.

When I began writing novels, I read Aristotle to learn how to perfect structure, Pearl Cleage to sustain tension, and Nora Roberts for characterization.

I fundamentally agree with the critical nature of Israeli democracy, which embraces the core notion of free speech.

For parents who work, afterschool programs can be a crucial support system, but too many communities have limited options.

Leadership requires the ability to engage and to create empathy for communities with disparate needs and ideas. Telling an effective story – especially in romantic suspense – demands a similar skill set.

Progress is possible, but it is fragile – and across our country, the battles for our most basic civil rights rage on.

Writing is a side hustle that had previously enabled me to pay for rehab for my brother, purchase a car for my parents, and help friends out when they fell on hard times.

I like to solve problems. I know it is a skill set, but it’s also an obligation. I grew up with parents who believe that you don’t simply complain: you try to find solutions and fix what’s in front of you.

Many books that tell you how to achieve come from a privileged position. If you can’t see yourself in the advice, how can you use it?

Regardless of their parent’s income or zip code, every child in Georgia deserves access to a high-quality, affordable education.

I do not Google myself, I do not read comments, and I barely look myself in the eye when I look in the mirror.

My parents never ceased to struggle, but in witnessing their lives, I learned more about natural industry and leadership than in any classroom.

Quality educational care grows resilient children, provides support for working families and stability for employers, makes Georgia more competitive, and invests in the workforce of the future, beginning in early childhood.

To build a truly diverse economy with a pipeline of skilled labor, technical college in Georgia should be free, and students should be able to graduate debt-free from the public institution of their choice.

As a writer and former elected official, I believe in the power of words.

I’m proud to be a member of the creative class, particularly here in Atlanta where the entertainment and creative industries form such an integral part of our economy, our culture, and our community.

When you go after someone who has a deep ideological belief set that is contradictory with your own, it’s conversion. Conversion is hard. Conversion is miraculous. We have entire religions built around the idea of conversion. Politics is not a religion. Politics is about persuasion.

Our ability to participate in government, to elect our leaders and to improve our lives is contingent upon our ability to access the ballot. We know in our heart of hearts that voting is a sacred right – the fount from which all other rights flow.

Voter suppression takes different forms.

My life has always been about making certain I accrue the skills necessary to make my ambitions real.

The miasma of fear that is created through voter suppression is as much about terrifying people about trying to vote as it is about actually blocking their ability to do so.

We need to recognize that, whether you’re looking at Georgia or North Carolina or North Dakota or Florida, that the disenfranchisement of voters, the suppression of votes, cuts across every community, and therefore, it cuts across partisanship.

Georgians understand obligation, love of family, and payment plans.

Good romantic suspense can never underestimate the audience, and the best political leaders know how to shape a compelling narrative that respects voters and paints a picture of what is to come.

Fundamentally, the solution to economic insecurity is economic prosperity – an achievable goal. But for anyone who has grown up without financial security, there’s a shadow that lies over even those who move towards independence: lack of financial literacy.

Confederate monuments belong in museums where we can study and reflect on that terrible history, not in places of honor across our state.

When you’re focused on your enemy, then you are ignoring your allies.

Hydro, wind, solar, and biomass energy have economic impact across the state and, with collaboration and focus, can become engines of prosperity for more Georgians.

Antiabortion rules disproportionately harm women of color and low-income women of every ethnicity, affecting their economic capacity and threatening their very lives.

We deserve an economy that works in every county, for every Georgian, and helps families thrive – not just survive.

We must reject the cynicism that says allowing every eligible vote to be cast and counted is a ‘power grab.’ Americans understand that these are the values our brave men and women in uniform and our veterans risk their lives to defend.

The basis for sustainable progress is legal protections grounded in an awareness of how identity has been used to deny opportunity.

There are racial and gender implications to how we think about what leadership looks like in the country.

I got into my first fight, Democrat versus Republican, in second grade. I won.

Let me be clear: I unequivocally support a two-state solution as the path to resolution of the Israel and Palestinian conflict, with Israel as the national homeland for the Jewish people. Moreover, I reject the demonization and de-legitimization of Israel represented by the BDS narrative and campaign.

I know we have to have people of good conscience who stand up against oppression. I know we have to have people who understand that social justice belongs to us all. And that wakes me up every morning, and that makes me fight even harder.

We must use words to uplift and include. We can use our words to fight back against oppression and hate. But we must also channel our words into action.

That’s just always the way my mind has worked, is taking something that seems impossible, or too big, and then breaking it down into these pieces so that I know how to get there.

I grew up hearing my parents’ stories about how they had to fight for their right to vote in the Jim Crow South.

My primary goal is to eradicate poverty; I believe it is immoral and a stain on our society. And so when I despair or get angry, I take the time to think about how I can best achieve that goal – and then I get to work.

The manufacturing-intensive advanced energy industry promotes work for engineers, machinists, coders and installers, but also administrators, accountants, truck drivers, sales force, and a range of other occupations.

Where I know my strengths lie, for me, is establishing systems and protocols, finding solutions, and trying to push for results. The Senate is a great institution, but for me, it’s not the role that best suits those needs.

Economic security can feel like an impossible goal when you’re living paycheck to paycheck, deciding between paying the light bill or the water bill, knowing the decision to pay either one may mean you can’t put food on the table.

‘First things first’ might be a cliche, but it’s a useful one that means prioritizing what matters most to you and believing there is no wrong answer. When it comes to figuring this out for yourself, the careful binary of work or life entirely misses the point.