From Khaleesi To Liz Lemon: 30 Smart Pieces Of Career Advice From Your Favorite TV Boss Ladies

Leslie Knope, Parks and Recreation

1. “I am big enough to admit that I am often inspired by myself.”

2. “One person’s annoying is another’s inspiring and heroic.”

3. “What I hear when I’m being yelled at is people caring loudly at me.”

4. “We need to remember what’s important in life: friends, waffles, work. Or waffles, friends, work. Doesn’t matter, but work is third.”

Kimmy Schmidt, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

5. “Life beats you up, Titus. It doesn’t matter if you get tooken by a cult or you’ve been rejected over and over again at auditions. You can either curl up in a ball and die, like we thought Cyndee did that time, or you can stand up and say, ‘We’re different. We’re the strong ones, and you can’t break us.’”

3. Peggy Olson, Mad Men

6. “I don’t think anyone wants to be one of a hundred colors in a box.”

7. “I am the person you need to impress right now.”

8. “Just tell the truth. Don’t worry about the outcome. People respect that.”

Joan Holloway Harris, Mad Men

9. “Sometimes when people get what they want, they realize how limited their goals were.”

April Ludgate, Parks and Recreation

10. “I’m going to tell you a secret about everyone else’s job: No one knows what they’re doing. Deep down, everyone is just faking it until they figure it out. And you will, too, because you are awesome and everyone else sucks.”

Rachel Green, Friends

11. “You know what I figure, if I can do laundry, there’s nothing I can’t do.”

12. “Let me tell you about a couple of things I learned while working at the coffee house. First of all, the customer is always right. A smile goes a long way. And if anyone is ever rude to you: sneeze muffin.”

Betty Suarez, Ugly Betty

12. “You are an attractive, intelligent, confident businesswoman.”

Liz Lemon, 30 Rock

13. “Listen up everybody. Listen to me. Listen! There will be no more baked goods. No more walking all over me. I was here all night doing your work. But at 3:30 this morning, I happened to see this episode of ‘Designing Women.’ And when it came on again at 5:30, I taped it. And I want you all to watch very closely because it sums up so perfectly what I want to say to you … I am the boss here. And sometimes that’s going to make me unpopular. But the point is, I know what you called me Lutz … You can stay. But if you ever, if any of you ever call me that horrible word again, I will fire you! And you will never alter drapes in Atlanta again, because you do not cross a Sugarbaker woman! I’m so tired. I’m so tired, you guys.”

14. “I’m a star, I’m on top. some body bring me some ham!”

Selina Meyer, Veep

15. Student: “When I grow up, I want to be vice president just like you.”
Selina Meyer: “No, you don’t. You want to be president.”

Olivia Pope, Scandal

16. “Dive in. Own it. Mock your image. You start off strong. Something like, ‘I see a lot of familiar faces here tonight including one or two who inexplicably haven’t been accused of sleeping with me.’ Laugh at yourself. It’ll make it impossible for them to laugh at you.”

17. “I’m never out of options.”

Rory Gilmore, Gilmore Girls

18. “My mother never gave me any idea that I couldn’t do whatever I wanted to do or be whomever I wanted to be. She filled our house with love and fun and books and music, unflagging in her efforts to give me role models from Jane Austen to Eudora Welty to Patti Smith. As she guided me through these incredible eighteen years, I don’t know if she ever realized that the person I most wanted to be was her … Thank you, Mom. You are my guidepost for everything.”

Lorelai Gilmore, Gilmore Girls

19. “Does he have a motorcycle? Because if you’re going to throw your life away, he better have a motorcycle!”

Cookie Lyon, Empire

20. “You messing with the wrong b***h. I know things.”

21. “I’m here to get what’s mine.”

22. “Yeah, difficult. I know that word. You see, y’all like to toss us to the side when you can’t control us anymore because you’re lazy and you don’t want to do your job.”

Mindy Lahiri, The Mindy Project

23. “It is so weird, being my own role model.”

24. “What am I doing here? That’s like asking Rihanna what she’s doing at the Met Ball. I’m the queen of this ish.”

Jess Day, New Girl

25. “I brake for birds. I rock a lot of polka dots. I have touched glitter in the last 24 hours. I spend my entire day talking to children. And I find it fundamentally strange that you’re not a dessert person. It freaks me out. I’m sorry that I don’t talk like Murphy Brown. And I hate your pants suit. I wish it had ribbons on it or something just to make it slightly cuter but that doesn’t mean I’m not smart and tough and strong.”

Samantha Jones, Sex and the City

26. “If I worried what every b***h in New York was saying about me, I’d never leave the house.”

27. “How does my personal life affect your business?”

Daenerys Targaryen, Game of Thrones

28. “It seems to me that a queen who trusts no one is as foolish as a queen who trusts everyone.”

29. “I am no ordinary woman, my dreams come true.”

30. “You’re both here to advise me. I value your advice, but if you ever question me in front of strangers again, you’ll be advising someone else. Is that understood?”