I will not sit in a room with black people when the N word is used. I know it was meant to belittle a person, so I will not sit there and have that poison put on me. Now a black person can say, 'Oh, you know, I can use this word because I'm black.'
They did it to try and belittle me, to try and to take away my pride. But I went through the whole system with them. And at the end, I - I wanted the public to know that I was okay, even though I was hurting.
I love empowering women. I think it's crazy: if you ever try to belittle women, you're playing yourself - I ride with whoever rides with me.
I guess I feel the most powerful when someone tries to take my power or belittle me or insult me, and it doesn't work.
If somebody, without knowing me, comes up to me and wants to upset or belittle me, I think that reflects badly on them, not me... if you're ever unsure of what to call me or someone like me, my name always does well.
As a coping mechanism, or as a way to make a little hard count by shilling demons in the shadows, I try not to belittle the thought process of the conspiracy theorists. As a cocktail waitress in Vegas once schooled me: never get down on anybody else's hustle.
In 2007, people tried to belittle me a little bit and sort of take the credit away from me and my team and what we achieved.
Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
If there are occasions when my grape turned into a raisin and my joy bell lost its resonance, please forgive me. Charge it to my head and not to my heart.
I was going to McDonald's and Taco Bell every day. The kids behind the counter knew me - it wouldn't even faze them. Or I'd sit up at Denny's or Big Boy and just eat by myself. It was sad. I got so heavy that people started to not recognize me.
I remember, when I went away to college at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, my aunt sent me a book with the rules of being a Southern Belle. One of the rules was to never wear white after Labor Day. Fashion has a lot to do with confidence and making up your own rules.
On Belle de Jour, the producer was very protective. It was very hard for me.
It took me some years to clear my head of what Paris wanted me to admire about it, and to notice what I preferred instead. Not power-ridden monuments, but individual buildings which tell a quieter story: the artist's studio, or the Belle Epoque house built by a forgotten financier for a just-remembered courtesan.
Corsets were a challenge in 'Belle;' fake nails tripped me up in 'Blackbird.' Guess I'm not a mani type of girl!
When the Rocawear team reached out and wanted to make me the face of La Belle Roc, I was super excited!
Animals are everything to me. I always say, 'Who rescued who?' with my horse Belle. She is my greatest teacher. She teaches me to be grounded, present, and in the moment, which I feel is key to happiness. My panic attacks become nonexistent when spending time with my animals, especially out in nature.
So a lot of me is still a little kid, and I think that kind of helps alter my sense of reality - it makes me able to just become Belle every single night.
Really hairy backs on men turn me off. I'm not into the ape thing at all. Or beer bellies and flabby arms, either. Also, one random nose hair which is longer than the others... that's gross.
In a pine tree behind me, an eagle waits out the rain, hunched into himself, brooding. Crows squabble, a murder chasing a raven. Seals cruise the lines of fishing nets bobbing in the water, hoping for an easy meal, the tender bellies of salmon.
It seems to me that many of the belligerent Jewish movements that were built upon hatred of Arabs - and I'm not only talking about Lieberman, but within the Likud as well - grew out of the patronizing socialist attitude that said, 'They'll be there, and we'll be here.'
