Ava DuVernay Quotes

I wanted to express myself. I wanted to be creative and I didn't want to worry about someone bossing me around in the process. You have to struggle no matter where you are to get to where you're going, so I'm like, working it honey!

I wouldn't be where I am right now, and have the right work ethic and discipline, if it weren't for all the indie films I did. We weren't pampered and were pretty much on our own.

I'm just one of those people that, if there's a problem, I want to work through it. Push through it and do everything I can. Anything.

I do it all, man. I produce, I do my own wardrobe and my own ironing, too!

Basically that you can do anything. If you pool your resources,and just give up the idea that you're going to act like a normal person or sleep, if you want it hard enough and do it well enough, it happens. A lot of really talented people either sort of get crushed under the wheel of the movie studio system or desperately try and get their next gig in TV. I understand why, because we've all got to put food on the table and the brass ring is out there, we'd all like to be making the Emmy-winning shows and the blockbusters and all that, but at the same time you could be doing stuff yourself.

I don't know how to get anything done except getting on my knees and pleading for help and then getting on my feet and going to work.

Since I was 9 years old, I have been working, hustling to find my own projects - from telenovelas to record deals, etc. etc. Way before I met my husband.

I wanted to acquire an education, work extremely hard and never deviate from my goal, to make it.

I think if you show up and you work hard and you're straightforward, you can always create your own opportunities. I hope I'm right.

Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will.

Get off your bottom and be the stand, and do the work you can to pursue the American Dream for yourself, and help others to do the same.

I don't mean this to sound cliche, but it's really about the work for me. I like to keep working on things.

The thing about film-making is I give it everything, that's why I work so hard. I always tell young actors to take charge. It's not that hard. Sign your own cheques, be responsible.

I wasn't sheltered or spoiled. All the money I made, I made myself.

I never took a grant or borrowed a penny from anybody. It was partially because I didn't really know how to do that, but secondly, my pride never would have allowed me to. In the beginning it was about doing it the right way, on the merits of the music.

My grandfather, as I said, was industrious. He'd had a variety of jobs and decided sometime in the 1940s that he would never work for anyone. He was also a very independent man.

I've always had to work hard for what I've got and to stay where I was.

I've always been a workhorse, and I've been supporting myself since I was 15.

I am a firm believer in if you can't get it the old fashioned way, you don't need it.

My granddad was a hard worker, and my dad is, too. It was instilled in me as a kid. I never got pocket money; I had to earn it. I had two paper rounds before school, not just one. Wherever I worked, whether it was at football, in the pub, I'd do whatever was asked of me - and more.

If you want something hard enough, it just gets done.

There's nothing romantic about my work... I don't believe in inspiration. I believe that you get to your desk, you stay there, you work, you think of nothing else. You write and you write, and in the end, you write something good.

My hustle is nonstop. I never stop hustling.

I don't have a formula to pass on. I always did it my own way. Even today, I hold my independence close. It's what's most precious to me. Passion. Risk. Tenacity. Consistency. This is my professional history.

I have a mother who never took no for an answer when it came to her creative pursuits. She started a hair salon in her spare bedroom and four years later had 30 employees.