Quotes About Perseverance

My best teacher was my mother. She was a diplomats wife living in the Arab world in the 70s and 80s who always worked, even in really tough circumstances.

Every season will have its dips and hard moments, and the challenge then is to make sure you don't get too down in those moments and make sure you come back fighting.

I was in dire need of a band that was serious about getting out of El Paso.

For me, in my life, dyslexia has been a little bit of a blessing. It helped me find my strength and directed me towards what I really wanted to do.

My energy is good; it is directed at training hard.

I directed my first movie, not one piece of press!

I spent a long time on my first movie, which was the sequel to a short film that I did called 'Carne.' And I had no money. I shot it over a period of three years, a bit like David Lynch directed 'Eraserhead.'

I started making 8mm films when I was 13, so I've been directing for 21 years.

I'm an addict. I've been one my whole life. Most of it was channeled in the right direction, whether it was playing basketball or working out. From the time I was little, my mom said I always needed to be entertained.

When it's time to play, I'm going to come play. I'm going to play the right way. I'm going to try to help my team in all directions, blocking and catching. If I don't have the ball in my hand, I'm going to protect, block down the field. I'm going to do whatever it takes to win.

The lesson was an Absa Cape Epic can go all directions: to the good and to the bad.

A lecturer once told me I could never be a director. I was 16. I believed him.

A film director has to get a shot, no matter what he does. We're desperate people.

I don't know, you know, when I look at it now, I don't know what in the world made me think I could become a director. I really don't.

I don't feel the need to direct. I tried to get other people to direct Dances, but they wouldn't do it. They all thought it was too long. One director wanted to cut the Civil War sequence. Another thought the white woman was very cliched.

There are some moments where you're so depressed, you cannot see the way, and you're like, 'Whatever. Bite me.' I think all directors feel that way sometimes.

There was always a conscious effort on my part to do different cinema. It's taken time for the directors to accept me.

I don't know how to make movies without getting my hands dirty.

I've got more bruises and scars on my legs than should be there. And I'm a physical person. That's why I like action movies. I like to get real into it all and get real down and dirty.

I learned to get what I wanted through any means necessary, and sometimes that means you have to get your hands dirty.

I want the title. But these hands are working hands, and sometimes you've got to get them dirty.

I'm not a dirty player. I love this game, and I'm playing hard.

People who have it too easy in early life have a disadvantage for later on, because they get to thinking that everything is going to be easy.

Some people might think that what I've done before made it easier for me to get jobs, but it was actually a disadvantage. I had to work even harder.