M. Night Shyamalan Quotes

Life is a difficult game. You can win it only by retaining your birthright to be a person. And to retain this right, you will have to be willing to take the social or external risks involved in ignoring pressures to do things the way others say they should be done

Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost.

I've learned to think, I may succeed or fail, but I'm going to do so on the merit of my own instincts.

To be one's self, and unafraid whether right or wrong, is more admirable than the easy cowardice of surrender to conformity.

Quitting law school was the most difficult decision of my life. But I felt this great relief that this is my life and I can do what I want with it.

You have to just make the choices you make in life. I made the choices I made because I believed they were right for me.

Who do you want to be: the radical man who can make a choice in one second, or the man who never takes decisions? That's the question: who's the best? Actually, there is no best.

Follow your own path.

I am incredibly lucky. I worked hard for my luck as well. I have made choices to do things because I wanted them to do them, not because they were the right thing to do.

Many people feel they are powerless to do anything effective with their lives. It takes courage to break out of the settled mold, but most find conformity more comfortable. This is why the opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it's conformity.

If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good.

A girl expecting rescue never learns to save herself. Even with the means, she will find her courage wanting.

I realize now how much courage it takes to choose the life you want, whatever that might be.

Experience tells you what to do; confidence allows you to do it.

I think that's important for all ages, to not be afraid of being an individual. I grew up on my own, as an only child, so early on I think I was quite capable of making decisions by myself and being an individual.

You cannot live your life looking at yourself from someone else's point of view.

People relate to the spirit of the band, which is to live your way and succeed on your own terms. There's no hypocrisy in being successful and still railing against conformity.

No one ever taught me how to shave; no one ever sat down to watch a Braves game with me. I paid for Yale myself, I lived by myself, I taught myself how to play the guitar. I did this all on my own.

You've got to make sure every decision you make is right for you as a person. If you think you can go to a better club than the one you're at, then, regardless of what anyone says, you should go.

I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else's whim or to someone else's ignorance.

Follow your own star!

The supreme lesson of any education should be to think for yourself and to be yourself; absent this attainment, education creates dangerous, stupefying conformity.

I have the freedom to take chances, to say no. I have the freedom to be who I really want to be, rather than have to conform to this or that just to stay alive.

I believe in letting each person find what they need and not getting involved with their destiny.

There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail.