Professional Challenges Quotes

I yearn to make a really good, intelligent movie before I die: I don't completely rule out the possibility, but in Hollywood, I'm not bankable.

I'm a kid from Ohio in an industry that drives people insane.

Architecture is unnecessarily difficult. It's very tough.

I had the experience last year of directing my first feature while I had a 1-year-old son and while I was also pregnant, so I am now well aware of the difficulties women who are rearing children face when they're also trying to make headway in mainstream of film.

At the end of the day, I'm still an African-American woman in a male-dominated industry, so sometimes you have to deal with people not taking your ideas seriously. But I look at it as, I'd rather have adversities in something that I love than doing something that I hate or where I am not interested.

The main reason I didn't work in Bollywood was due to the tremendous pressure on me in Bengal.

I'd love to do more 'Nighty Night,' but that's always down to commissions, really. It's weird as well because everyone's moved on. I don't know if I could get all those people back.

How many managers told me, 'Get a nose job. You're not pretty enough?' But I proved them wrong.

'Banshee' was kind of a lark. I was getting paid pretty well to write movies no one was making - and so I decided to try my hand at TV and get paid much less to actually get something produced.

You know, with the film industry crews, there's an odd mix between a very technical and a very artistic approach to the work, and sometimes as a woman you have to be a little bit careful about how things come out because people don't really want to listen if it's in a certain emotional tone or too strong.

But as an amateur, the highest level you can box at is the Olympics. I did that at 18 and felt it was time to move on to other challenges as a professional.

I do like to work with young directors because it's such a difficult business that I think after directors have been around a while sometimes, not always, but sometimes their passion gets siphoned off because they get hurt.

When you've dealt with real-life issues, dealing with business issues is not that hard.

And I don't believe that women can successfully have it all. I really don't.

I went to UCLA and studied studio art. I thought I was going to be a gallery painter, photographer, or ceramicist. Then, when I graduated, that didn't happen immediately. I didn't suddenly get solo shows in Chelsea, and I realized that is actually kind of difficult to break into.

Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes." They will say, "Women don't have what it takes.”

I love doing independent films, but it's very hard to make a living that way.

When I think about somebody like Keira Knightley, whom I don't particularly know, I see somebody who is working hard, really trying to challenge herself and make smart choices in spite of people criticising her size and performances.

It's just the story of my career, really. I will have good weeks; I'll have bad weeks. It's just a roller-coaster.

I was going through a very bad phase when 'Kyunki... Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi... ' happened. I was just not getting any work.

It's a weird thing about our business: You give everything you have, and there are moments where you go back and forth in your mind about if what you're doing is brilliant or a total disaster.

If I have to do 40 films like 'Punchnama,' I will take it up as long as I enjoy it.

This is a movement to say we're more than just our dresses. ... It's hard being a woman in Hollywood or any industry.

I've really fought to get into rooms, and I'm a big believer in auditioning. It's hard, because I'm insecure, but I have an intense desire to prove myself to people.

I think a lot of times, when you're working in this business, and you're both actors or somehow involved in the industry, you can get torn in different directions and be on completely opposite schedules.