Gugu Mbatha-Raw Quotes

I'm not entangled in shaping my work according to other people's views of how I should have done it.

I'm just an individual who doesn't feel that I need to have somebody qualify my work in any particular way. I'm working for me.

I've had a lot of voices tell me what I should be making. Personally, I would much rather live and die by my own hand. If my stuff sucks, then at least I made it suck. I didn't allow some person, some old dude in a suit, to make it suck for me.

I feel so lucky and so privileged that I like writing for myself. Like, I don't have to wait for somebody to create a part for me or a project for me. I can just do it. And that's so great.

It was more freedom than I think most people get when they're starting out - or even when they're not starting out. He [John Cassavetes] did his thing and I did whatever I thought.

I wanted to retain my individuality. I was afraid of being hampered by studio policies. I knew if someone else got control, I would be restrained.

I'd like to make mistakes on my own dime and not have a herd of people tell me what I'm doing wrong. and I'm also still trying to find and develop my voice as a filmmaker, and I think that's easier to do on your own terms than trying to satisfy a bunch of people that are paying for the movie.

And I love doing my own projects; that's what I've always wanted to do.

Very few artists are as independent as I am mentally, physically, spiritually and technically. I sit in my home studio and record things by myself. I don't need to get anybody's approval or validation.

For me, I want my kids to find their way. If they're interested in something, I want them to try it out.

I really have to feel a sense of freedom in my storytelling.

I don't care what other people think any more about me writing my own parts.

Nobody owns me or my music.

The whole 'bad girl' thing allows me to mess up sometimes. And I have freedom to say more of what I want to.

Certainly in cartooning I'm given huge free rein at the moment.

For your own self-respect and sanity, your creative freedom, you have to be careful that you don't rely too much on other people's opinions of what you do because it can stunt and inhibit you.

That is the true joy of being a solo artist. I can do whatever I want. I can go wherever I want. I can show up with my guitar and my song, and it can sound a hundred different ways. That's the freedom of being on your own. The flipside is: That's you on the cover. If it sucks, it's your fault.

The thing I hate most in acting is asking permission to do things. What you really want to do is say, 'This is my need; this is what's going to get me further; this is what's going to be alive. I don't ever say, 'Do you mind if...?' I just come in and do it.

I think as long as you're being creative and finding your own work interesting, that's all that matters.

I think it's important to give young people the freedom to follow their ideas and pursue their interests.

I have to believe that I know what's best for me. For instance, I choose all my songs. I never record anything I don't want to record. No one tells me what concerts to do.

I know I'm not gonna please everybody when I make a record. I don't let that affect any of my decisions.

I will not let my sales figures dictate what I say on the blog, because the blog is what I want to say.

Stand up for yourself and fight for your right to be the artist that you want to be. There's plenty of pressure from outside; people tell you how to dress and how to sing or what to sing, but I always felt like if I'm going to fail or succeed, I want to do it on my own terms.

If one has fear, there can be no initiative in the creative sense of the word. To have initiative in this sense is to do something original - to do it spontaneously, naturally, without being guided, forced, controlled. It is to do something which you love to do.