Nelson Mandela in his 1994 inaugural speech on becoming President of South Africa:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

This quote was hanging on my friend Paula's refridgerator. I had to track it down.

Christine Vachon, film producer, called Battle Creek, Michigan "the home of the big people," while describing a former colleague in a rather unflattering way in her recent autobiography "A Killer Life." To which I will now retort, "We're all big people Ms. Vachon, even if some of us haven't realized our full potential (yet)."

I scouted a film for Ms. Vachon while I was working for the Maryland Film Office, which never materialized, yet she was back (in Baltimore) after I left for a John Water's film.