Hidden Figures (2016) quotes

Director
Theodore Melfi.

Cast
Taraji P. Henson.
Octavia Spencer.
Janelle Monáe.

The story of a team of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program.

Here at NASA we all pee the same color.
– Al Harrison

Every time we get a chance to get ahead they move the finish line. Every time.
– Mary Jackson

There are no colored bathrooms in this building, or any building outside the West Campus, which is half a mile away. Did you know that? I have to walk to Timbuktu just to relieve myself! And I can’t use one of the handy bikes. Picture that, Mr. Harrisson. My uniform, skirt below the knees and my heels. And simple necklace pearls. Well, I don’t own pearls. Lord knows you don’t pay the colored enough to afford pearls! And I work like a dog day and night, living on coffee from a pot none of you want to touch! So, excuse me if I have to go to the restroom a few times a day.
– Katherine Johnson

We go from being our father’s daughters, to our husband’s wives to our babies’ mothers…
– Mary Jackson

Despite what you may think, I have nothing against y’all.
– Vivian Mitchell
I know, I know you probably believe that.
– Dorothy Vaughan

Mary, a person with an engineer’s mind should be an engineer. You can’t be a computer the rest of your life.
– Karl Zielinski
Mr. Zielinski, I’m a negro woman. I’m not gonna entertain the impossible.
– Mary Jackson
And I’m a Polish Jew whose parents died in a Nazi prison camp. Now I’m standing beneath a spaceship that’s going to carry an astronaut to the stars. I think we can say we are living the impossible. Let me ask you, if you were a white male, would you wish to be an engineer?
– Karl Zielinski
I wouldn’t have to. I’d already be one.
– Mary Jackson

If you act right – you are right. That’s for certain.
– Dorothy Vaughan

Separate and equal are two different things. Just ’cause it’s the way, doesn’t make it right, understand?
– Dorothy Vaughan

I plan on being an engineer at NASA, but I can’t do that without taking them classes at that all-white high school, and I can’t change the color of my skin. So I have no choice, but to be the first, which I can’t do without you, sir. Your honor, out of all the cases you gon hear today, which one is gon matter hundred years from now? Which one is gon make you the first?
– Mary Jackson

Oh, I’ll tell you where to begin: Three Negro women chasing a white police officer down a highway in Hampton, Virginia in 1961. Ladies, that there is a God-ordained miracle!
– Mary Jackson

Well, the curriculum is not designed for teaching a woman.
– Night School Professor
I imagine it’s the same as teaching a man.
– Mary Jackson

What the devil are you doing? Are you taking a break?
– Mary Jackson

Let’s get the girl to check the numbers.
– John Glenn
The girl?
– Al Harrison
Yes, Sir.
– John Glenn
You mean Katherine?
– Al Harriso
Yes, Sir, the smart one. And if she says they’re good, I’m ready to go.
– John Glenn

Civil rights ain’t always civil.
– Levi Jackson

How can you be possibly ogling these white men?
– Katherine Johnson
It’s equal rights. I have the right to see fine in every color.
– Mary Jackson

We get to the peak together, or we don’t get there at all.
– Al Harrison

So, er, do you think we’ll get to the moon?
– Al Harrison
We’re already there, sir.
– Katherine Johnson