Ava DuVernay Quotes

'Twilight' is reaching so many people, and I think it's a really good step in the right direction for diversity and opening up doors.

In the long run, we will need many more African-American, Latino, and Native American leaders, and leaders from low-income communities, who can bring additional insight and a deeply grounded sense of urgency, and who are the most likely to inspire the necessary trust and engagement among students' parents and community leaders.

I wanted to create a culture that allowed my children to see the world differently, if only from a strictly visual perspective: to have a child see a room where half of the people are women and minorities is so powerful. I think everyone wants for their children a world that's better than the one they came up in.

The world belongs to those who want to make a difference, and gender is no barrier.

I definitely think the beauty industry is wising up. We are seeing a lot more representation and different people.

That's a goal of mine and the sport. To become more diverse and change the demographic, bring in a new face.

Kids need to see their world reflected back to them.

We still have a lot of work to do in American culture. More open-mindedness is happening - in some cases rapidly, in some, slowly.

We're not going back anywhere, we're going forward, we're going forward in democracy, we're going forward in participation, we're going forward with ideas.

I did not want my tombstone to read, 'She kept a really clean house.' I think I'd like them to remember me by saying, 'She opened government to everyone.'

I feel a responsibility to continue creating complex roles for black women, especially young black women.

I have to write people who feel honest but also push our cultural ball forward.

Since becoming aware of the need to be inclusive, I've tried to make my stories broader and more representative of our world.

I have never wavered from my intention to advance the cause of diversity in new and more effective ways.

I want to make films that make a difference. I want to be out and hope that that will make things better for gay people and for myself. I hope one day I can start to make the kind of projects or be involved with kind of projects that can really make a difference.

I write for young girls of color, for girls who don't even exist yet, so that there is something there for them when they arrive. I can only change how they live, not how they think.

I want to speak for people that may not feel like they're being spoken for at the moment. And I want to make a connection between the world around us and the charts.

I don't have one role that I want to play. I guess... I want to be a producer. I want to be an activist. I want to be proactive in bringing about work for men, women, boys, girls, everybody who is good at what they do and deserve a shot at it.

I try not to put anything political on the forefront of what I'm trying to do creatively. At the same time, I do think it's wonderful when I hear people say that it's inspirational that I'm an Indian woman on camera. My life is very diverse, and my friends are a diverse group of people.

I'd like to be the role model to teach other people who have Down's syndrome to be actors and actresses and to be themselves and not try to be a big shot.

We are witnessing a very slow and painful cultural shift. Some male gamers with a deep sense of entitlement are terrified of change. They believe games should continue to cater exclusively to young heterosexual men with ever more extreme virtual power fantasies.

I just want to continue to break barriers and to show the industry and the world that beauty is diverse, and you don't have to be a certain stereotype to be beautiful.

I think that instead of feminism being a political thing, it should be an act of creativity. It's more of a rock n' roll thing.

The very good thing about MFA programs is their democratizing. They bring a lot of different people to the table.

When I started acting, I hoped I could make some kind of positive contribution to this world. When I get a letter from some kid in Nebraska saying that, prior to Han, nobody wanted to be his friend because Asians weren't cool if they weren't into martial arts - Now he's accepted and recognized as a human being. That's pretty awesome, right?