"If your dream only includes you, it's too small."
"Film school was a privilege I could not afford."
About the author
Ava DuVernay
Film Director
Ava DuVernay is a filmmaker known for her impactful works like '13th' and 'Selma', which explore themes of justice and representation.
All quotes by Ava DuVernay →Same author
More quotes by Ava DuVernay
"Be passionate and move forward with gusto every single hour of every single day until you reach your goal."
"Ignore the glass ceiling and do your work. If you're focusing on the glass ceiling, focusing on what you don't have, focusing on the limitations, then you will be limited. My way was to work, make my short... make my documentary... make my small films... use my own money... raise money myself... and stay shooting and focused on each project."
"Figure out what you need to do to be the heroine of your own story."
"Time will tell ... whether folks want to point and stare at the black woman filmmaker who made a certain kind of film, and pat her on the back, or if they want to actually roll up the sleeves and do a little bit of work so that there can be more of me coming through."
"As a Black woman filmmaker I feel that’s my job: visibility. And my preference within that job is Black subjectivity. Meaning I’m interested in the lives of Black folk as the subject. Not the predicate, not the tangent.[These stories] deserve to be told. Not as sociology, not as spectacle, not as a singular event that happens every so often, but regularly and purposefully as truth and as art on an ongoing basis, as do the stories of all the women you love."