John Amaechi Quotes

#1. I think there is unnecessary conflict right now between the vehemently religious and the LGBT community. The extremes of religion I think and the LGBT community have an issue and because a lot of black families in America are more religious, I think that is where the conflict comes into play.

John Amaechi

#2. I just wanted to fit in, so probably early on I knew, but it was ... social life was such a distant part of my existence when I was in school that I didn't even think about it too much.

John Amaechi

#3. Knowing yourself, knowing where you want to get, combining those things gives you the pragmatic steps.

John Amaechi

#4. In the NBA you need a little bit more than that when Jordan is front of you. You need a little bit more than that when it is Barkley or Karl Malone or Shaq or whoever else. You need a lot more than that frankly if you're the English kid who can't jump.

John Amaechi

#5. We need to accept that some people are camp and some people are butch. Some people are pretty and some people are average, but we all fit.

John Amaechi

#6. I think it's too easy to just say that there is a direct and necessary conflict between black identity and gay identity. I think it's more nuanced than that simply because I think black is a color and then people layer on top of it all kinds of socio-cultural elements.

John Amaechi

#7. I grew up thinking the best job in the world would be a Jedi and being a psychologist is the closest thing I could get, so I wanted to be a Jedi and I don't want to be a Sith, so that is what keeps me on the straight and narrow.

John Amaechi

#8. I consider myself a pretty rounded guy. I've done pretty elite things in business, sport and academics and all of a sudden I woke up one morning and I'm a 'big, black, British, gay guy'. That was frustrating at times

John Amaechi

#9. In a country like America there are places, many states here still where coming out means you lose your job, where coming out means division, where it means potentially abuse.

John Amaechi

#10. In my experience, it's only people who don't play sport at a professional level who think that there is anything remotely erotic about a locker room.

John Amaechi

#11. We need to get past the point where being black and a male means that I am likely to mug you for your wallet, likely to have a minus 15 on my IQ, likely to not go to college and likely to wear my pants below my arse.

John Amaechi

#12. You are axes, in a world of wood. And the wood remembers when it has been cut, even if the axe forgets.

John Amaechi

#13. I always think coming out is something that you do for people who really deserve it. It should be.

John Amaechi

#14. I think in an ideal world celebrities do have a responsibility in many different areas to be role models.

John Amaechi

#15. I don't need to think that I'm being loomed over my shoulder in order to behave in a way that's moral.

John Amaechi

#16. There are some people the gestation period is like an elephant's and it's just years and years before they're ready.

John Amaechi

#17. I wasn't going to let Jerry Sloan embarrass me, because basketball had a proper role in my life. I suspected my basketball philosophy wasn't the bottom line anyway.

John Amaechi

#18. I've been captivated by the idea of being on a basketball court and being surrounded by people who made me look a little bit less like a freak.

John Amaechi

#19. My particular interest area is working in issues of emotional literacy. What I see of the way that we educate boys and more than that, the way we socialize boys within their families and then in schools to me is tantamount to just removing any element of emotional intelligence from them.

John Amaechi

#20. You can't be a part-time man of principle.

John Amaechi

#21. I was a man who played basketball and after I played basketball and before I played basketball I was going to be a psychologist, whereas most people who play their occupation is their definition - and then when they stop doing who they are, they become nothing.

John Amaechi

#22. I'm a nerd. I like to sit in the library. I don't like to sweat.

John Amaechi

#23. I'd probably have to leave home in order to become a basketball player of any note.

John Amaechi