Estelle Morris Quotes

'Humans of New York' did not result from a flash on inspiration. It grew from five years of experimenting, tinkering, and messing up.

You don't have to raise millions of dollars to be successful, you just have to work on something you are passionate about.

This business [moviemaking] isn't easy. It's a hard business. You just keep plugging away until you figure it out. You write something you love and keep banging on people's heads until somebody lets you do it.

Ultimately, if you want to make movies, you've got to want to make movies every day, when people are paying you to make movies and when they're not, because you're going to get a lot more no's on this business, no matter what it is, than you are going to get yeses.

The only advice I can really give to the young filmmakers is to be persistent, don't give up, and keep watching and making as many movies as you possibly can.

I wish somebody had given me the news that ideas don't just fall on your head like fairy dust. You have to treat that like a job. You have to spend hours each day, where you're just like, 'This is the part of the day when I'm looking for an idea.'

A lot of people think inspiration means magic. But really, inspiration means to put life into something.

It's not just about acting. I love film, I'm a director now, I love writing, I love producing, I love having a company that makes films and to be prolific and have a place to put all the ideas that are constantly bubbling up inside of me and that don't let me sleep at night.

Making a film is very hard work, and you live or die by the sword just a little bit every time you do it, but I wouldn't chuck it in.

If you want to direct, you've got to work.

Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is the result of good work habits.

When you look at every studio in the '20s or '30s, from Louis B. Mayer to Jack Warner, you see people who started with one plan and quickly shifted gears to adapt to a changing world. One of my favorite stories is that Walt Disney mortgaged his house to make 'Snow White.' He saw there was a real opportunity to change the world.

I couldn't find the sports car of my dreams, so I built it myself.

You can't invent Google, Facebook or the iPod unless you've mastered the basics, are willing to put in long hours and can pick yourself up from the floor when life knocks you down the first 10 times.

When I'm inspired, I get excited because I can't wait to see what I'll come up with next.

I'm certainly not into money and prestige. For me there is simply nothing more exciting than people involved in the creation of great products. That is what drives me.

Even if I hadn't won 'Drag Race,' even if I'd never been on, I'd still be working my tail off, creating live shows, magazines, videos, anything I possibly could!

Be passionate about your [movie] material, because you're going to have to overcome a lot of "No's," and it's that passion that fuels the fight.

Even when I’m not working, I’m still working on something because I just want to create something.

None of my inventions came by accident. I see a worthwhile need to be met and I make trial after trial until it comes. What it boils down to is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.

When I was 15, I left school to start a magazine, and it became a success because I wouldn't take no for an answer. I remember banging on James Baldwin's door to ask for an interview when he came to England. Then I got Jean-Paul Sartre's home phone number and asked him to contribute. If I'd been 30, he might have said no, but I was a 15-year-old with passion and he was charmed. Making money was always just a side product of having a good time and creating things nobody'd seen before.

Ideas are easy to come by; reduction to practice is an arduous but inspirationally rewarding matter.

When you want to do something creative and you want to do something new, you have to start with the thing that's making you want to jump up out of bed in the morning.

If you are an inventor, then you are destined for blood, sweat and tears.

Acting is a grind, just like music is a grind. Sometimes it takes longer than what you can give.