Ava DuVernay Quotes

I was a sports fan, but I also went to peace marches.

I went to a bunch of marches in New York and Washington, and you know I believe in the cause, but to march with those people takes a lot of compromise on my end.

Direct action means resort to non-constitutional methods that can take any form which many suit the conditions under which we live. We cannot eliminate any methods.

Change comes when people are willing to commit acts of peaceful civil disobedience.

When I think about protest, I worry so much that people think about it only as standing in the streets. And I say that as someone who has been standing in the streets of cities across the country - but at the root of it is this idea of telling the truth in public.

Some people see protesting as a bit of a dirty thing, and certainly the idea of getting arrested was not on people's radar.

Organizing is an educational process. The best educational process in the union is the picket line and the boycott. You learn about life.

There is a vast need for all types of protest today, whether it be civil disobedience, or whether it be on a - more conventional variety.

I think direct political action, civil disobedience, in particular, is something to be taken very seriously.

Even if it doesn't work, there is something healthy and invigorating about direct action

I was a militant.

My first civil disobedience arrest for social justice was in 1986 for protesting the SDI.

But picketing - picketing for or against something, and handing out literature - these are conspicuously formal actions. They have to be understood as indirect communication.

In some cases non-violence requires more militancy than violence.

King consciously steered away from legal claims and instead relied on civil disobedience.

Airbnb is a much more effective protest than shutting down the Brooklyn Bridge.

I do try to separate my personal activism - showing up at a demonstration or something - from what I write.

The only time I've been arrested was in opposing the Marble Hill nuclear power plant in Indiana. That was in 1979.

I didn't do the marching down the streets, jumping in front of the lines and holding hands... that wasn't me.

It's no fun to protest on an empty stomach.

You know, I was a community activist, so I'm used to standing out in front of an elected official's office and protesting.

There are many ways of showing your protest and discontent without the actions of Kremlin.

Yet what you need is not marches, demonstrations, rallies or wide associations, all of them are important. What you need is direct action. The sooner people understand that, the sooner we'll begin to change things.

Violent resistance and nonviolent resistance share one very important thing in common: They are both a form of theater seeking an audience to their cause.

It came home to me indelibly that I was never going to change anything in America by walking around carrying a sign. It was a great revelation. It saved me a lot of anxiety and a lot of wasted energy.