Melvin Van Peebles Quotes

When I first came out, I was a film student, and my mom sewed clothes. I was already doing a million things then, whatever it took to survive. If I had to braid someone's hair to get one pound for my lunch money, that's what I did.

Often I had to imagine the things I needed. I learned very early to read amidst noise. And so I started writing and drawing at an early age.

I was interested in a lot of subjects from very early on. And that's uniquely Chicano because every Chicano I knew always had three jobs.

When I came up with the idea for 'Tuskegee,' I didn't want to be confined by boundaries of age, genre or demographics. I am thrilled with how well this album has been received by people from all walks of life. It is truly living up to the vision we had when we created it.

We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit.

But I love the idea - whether it's in my work or where I live - exploring new frontier, and I like putting myself in strange places and trying to survive and figure things out and gather up an infrastructure. I like knowing that I could figure out a way to live anywhere.

The thing that makes a creative person is to be creative and that is all there is to it.

I've got a lot of crazy plans.

I'm a freestyle creative entrepreneur. Not a businessman. I like to create ventures in which creativity stands at the centre.

My methodology is not knowing what I'm doing and making that work for me.

I'll dispose of my teeth as I see fit, and after they've gone, I'll get along. I started off living on gruel, and by God, I can always go back to it again.

Most entrepreneurial ideas will sound crazy, stupid and uneconomic, and then they'll turn out to be right.

Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that's exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking.

Because, you know, resilience - if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you'd be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn't a last nugget. Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities.

Because I was poor I had one special advantage. When you are poor, and basic survival is your concern, you have no alternative but to be an entrepreneur. You must take action to survive just as you must take action to seize an opportunity.

We were trained to live by our wits, in any circumstance.

Human beings will make the best out of any situation.

I had noticed that many of these successful people, historical and contemporary, shared certain common traits. They had a way of thinking that was exceptionally fluid; they could adapt to almost any circumstance; when confronted with problems, they could look at them from novel perspectives and solve them.

Simply, the majority of the most interesting filmmakers are the ones confronted with difficult situations. Their creativity blows a hole in the wall and lets in the light.

I want to see creativity that breaks boundaries and isn't just about money.

I have no definite talent or trade, and how I stay alive is largely a matter of magic.

Creativity is a game changer. That's true of society, in advertising and in life.

My vision and my creative ability is just so broad.

We do things differently. You don't have to worry about being part of a particular genre. You just go for it.

I've always appreciated a creative approach to action, doing things that people don't expect, tweaking things to make them different.