Gaby Hoffmann Quotes

Never take no for answer, and try to make films that turn you on.

In fact when Sweet Honey was ten years old it was too big for me to run, and I knew it, but I ran it for another thirteen years because I couldn't convince other people to really do it. And this year, I'm not running it.

You shouldn't dream your film, you should make it!

My only advice is, follow your dream and do whatever you like to do the most. I chose journalism because I wanted to be in the places where history was being made.

I had wanted to act since I was a kid, but I had a lot of shame attached to it. I didn't tell anyone because I didn't think it was ever a possibility.

There's always constantly interesting things to do, and who knows, maybe I will be a good sculptor. I haven't decided what I am going to do next, but I am not going to quit just because I did something interesting.

You can read books on stuff all day long, but until you get out there and just do it, if you want to start playing, and you want to make some music, then go out and play. Go find yourself a venue and play, even if it's in your home. Just play every day. You win the fight by fighting.

Once I made the decision to make art despite the obstacles and to make this my priority, things just opened up for me.

Music is my passion, and where there is a will there is a way.

The how-to is all about day in, day out finding a way to feed the monster, the drive that lives inside.

The hardest lesson to learn always is to just have faith in that you will always have something to say or a story to tell. I have faith that I'll be able to continue to tell stories, write and tell stories. You just need to keep going at it.

I always feel like I have to keep going. You can sit back and say, 'Maybe I can stop.' But then you're yesterday, and I love tomorrow.

Even when I was struggling and had horrible day jobs and wanted to be successful but wasn't finding my way in, I knew what I had to do. I knew I had to keep working at it and keep putting material out there, even if no one was paying me for it.

When you're super passionate about something, you're more willing to do all of the grunt work. You know, like, I'm so willing to live on a bus for my whole life because that means I get that one moment on stage or that one moment in the studio that totally fills me.

No matter what you accomplish, when you're doing something you're truly passionate about... the opportunities are always going to be bigger.

When my body, my energy is low, it's hard for me to be a good husband, hard for me to be a good father... hard for me to be a good artist.

I've never, ever tried to make life easy for myself.

It really has become the singular motivation in my life - to surrender to the art and to the free expression of what I may be experiencing in my life spiritually. It is really hard in the face of people who don't get it, but what do you do?

If you do something, you should do it because you love it, and you should follow your heart and make it how your heart wants it to be made. But it's a difficult world, especially for musicians.

Being from a small town, no one else was going to breathe life into my ideas other than me, so I had to go out there and do it.

I think suffering has always been an incentive for my creativity.

Signature film-making seems rather dull to me; it's about finding something you can do something with and running with the ball.

I can't sit still for long and need creative outlets and think you should try different things. I mean, if you're a musician all of your life, you gotta try different things. I really believe you can have it all.

I started writing songs later in life because I just couldn't commit to it before.

To cement your name, you've got to go after the biggest fights.