Zawe Ashton Quotes

Ultimately, I think what I want from my career is to be able to create work for myself, and there's only so much you can do as an actor in a movie.

I've said this before, but after 'That '70s Show' ended, I solely wanted do films that inspire me, and to work with people who make me better. I wanted to just surround myself with people who I think are better than I am, whether they're actors or directors or producers, so that I could learn from them.

I love working for myself. I've grown to dislike the Hollywood machine. Too much bull, disappointment, and quite frankly, untalented, mindless, and hugely disrespectful people involved in the process. I'll take carrying the load on my back, all the way up Everest if needed, to be able to steer away from it.

I've created tens of thousands of jobs over the years.

I must say, to my great surprise and pleasure, I deeply loved making movies in the United States because of all the opportunities it gave me to work with people that I admire as artists.

I am a little older and understand the nature of the business - the older you get the more your skills supposedly diminish, but I think I am getting wiser in how to use my physical skills. That's the frustrating part when you put so much heart and desire into things and feel like you are not wanted.

It's a blessing to have work that feels fulfilling.

I love the idea that I have the power to look for the projects I can put myself into, but I'm still at that level of just being happy to have a job.

I only got to be able to act, because I gave myself a job as a producer.

I don't have a boss. Well, I have a boss: the public. If the public doesn't buy my books, I would be out of a job.

I ended up meeting my manager because my sister was a receptionist at a management company. My manager is actually my same manager that I have today. That's how it started. I worked my way.

I would like to know that I was still going to be employed as a woman well into my 60s. In acting terms, a career that spans a lifetime is a very hard thing to achieve, particularly as a woman.

I like the idea of not having to do stuff for the money, and if I want to, I can pick indie projects for the rest of my life and be quite happy doing that.

I made a big family when I was working at 'Vogue' for ten years, and I'm still friends with a lot of them.

It's an immensely competitive business, and I can tell you the older you get, the parts are fewer, and the people who are proven performers are greater.

The person who gives you your first job is so important in any industry.

I have no directing ambition whatsoever. And as long as I meet filmmakers like Tom Hooper, Stephen Frears, and others who allow that collaboration, I can't see why I would ever want to direct.

Screenplays I didn't really care about, journalism, travel books, getting my writer friends to write about their dreams or something. I just determined to write the books I had to write.

I'm not particularly a career-oriented guy. I'm lucky. I can make really interesting films much of the time with interesting people yet be anonymous, have a private life. But, I'd like to have the choice of the better roles.

My first real break was meeting my manager, Julie Gibson. She's the one that introduced me to Ford and Innovative and got me started.

I think I'll continue to work as a solo artist.

So many of my followers who just graduated can't get jobs; they're hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, and they don't know what to do. My dream is to see a new generation of entrepreneurs who are creating and having more meaningful jobs than the day-to-day grind.

The lack of available, good work inspires a lot of people to be self-creating.

I was scouted working at the register at McDonald's in Melbourne, Australia. I worked there as my first job, and a guy walked in and gave me his card. I was 16. I was skeptical, but I looked it up when I got home, and it was legitimate.

It's never a matter of career decisions. I don't think in those terms. What matters is whether a role is interesting, if I will enjoy playing it, and if I'm confident I can do a good job.