Ava DuVernay

If your dream only includes you, it's too small.

— Ava DuVernay

Film school was a privilege I could not afford.

— Ava DuVernay

Stop asking, start doing.

— Ava DuVernay

When you force sleep, it doesn't happen.

— Ava DuVernay

When you're in your lane, there's no traffic.

— Ava DuVernay

When you say cultural icon, I scrunch my nose.

— Ava DuVernay

I tell the stories that are of interest to me.

— Ava DuVernay

I think for female filmmakers a big issue is making their second and third films.

— Ava DuVernay

We're living based on laws and ideas that we, as a society, embraced back in the days of slavery.

— Ava DuVernay

Because my mom always told me that I could. From a very early age, I felt comfortable leading.

— Ava DuVernay

At the end of the day, I had to remain dedicated to historical accuracy.

— Ava DuVernay

I think I am a little jealous of women who have great girlfriends as adults.

— Ava DuVernay

I'm making and marketing my films, by any means necessary, and enjoying life while I do so.

— Ava DuVernay

[ Hollywood] is a patriarchy, headed by men and built for men.

— Ava DuVernay

When I look in the mirror, I see a woman who is happy.

— Ava DuVernay

I just don't think there's a lot of support for the woman's voice in cinema, and it becomes really difficult to raise…

— Ava DuVernay

Netflix represents, as well as all the streaming services, something that I've been talking about being so important to inclusive voices around…

— Ava DuVernay

When I'm marketing a film, whether its mine or someone else's, I work with a great deal of strategy and elbow grease…

— Ava DuVernay

I know that there are a lot of great women that have gone before me, so it's important to acknowledge them.

— Ava DuVernay

The traditional ways to make a film, the traditional ways to share a film, have all collapsed. There are no gatekeepers, per…

— Ava DuVernay

I always find it fascinating to ask people, why they've chosen to live their life as an artist? Why be an actor,…

— Ava DuVernay

I don't want to say that in a place that's negative about what the fear is. I just want to be a…

— Ava DuVernay

It's very nourishing and collaborative - kind of the true essence of what one would want an artistic collaboration to be [the…

— Ava DuVernay

We're told that independent film lovers... folks that are used to watching art house films, won't come out and see a film…

— Ava DuVernay

Usually, you have two people in a scene, and in the history of cinema the hero is most likely going to be…

— Ava DuVernay

I've been to Sundance eight times as a publicist and thought I was very prepared. I mean, who could've been more prepared…

— Ava DuVernay

Folks can look at this issue and read it and it can feel like medicine, it can feel epidemic. We wanted this…

— Ava DuVernay

There’s something very important about films about black women and girls being made by black women. It’s a different perspective. It is…

— Ava DuVernay

I'm not the most athletic gal, but because making a movie is very physical, I slow down on the Krispy Kreme and…

— Ava DuVernay

Ignore the glass ceiling and do your work. If you're focusing on the glass ceiling, focusing on what you don't have, focusing…

— Ava DuVernay

The idea that we criminalize fellow human beings based on optics, based on the need to progress in politics and gain power,…

— Ava DuVernay

I soon found I could not talk about that in a vacuum without understanding the historical, cultural, political context, and giving it…

— Ava DuVernay

By the end of the documentary [ '13th'], you really understand what prison is, what the prison industrial complex is, where this…

— Ava DuVernay

In addition to that, we have a woman post-production supervisor, a woman colorist, a woman first AD, a woman production supervisor... I…

— Ava DuVernay

When I'm marketing a film, whether its mine or someone else's, I work with a great deal of strategy and elbow grease…

— Ava DuVernay

I feel like it had an impact, in that it started the attention that has been paid to what was happening. It…

— Ava DuVernay

As a Black woman filmmaker I feel that’s my job: visibility. And my preference within that job is Black subjectivity. Meaning I’m…

— Ava DuVernay

There's never been a film with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the center released in theaters. Ever! One does not exist.…

— Ava DuVernay

Those [old] days are gone... accept the reality and do it.

— Ava DuVernay

My parents [are my hero]. They've helped me be who I am.

— Ava DuVernay