Madam Walker was a master marketer. But her brilliance was in taking it to another level by training women, by traveling, by making very motivational speeches and by providing independent income for women who otherwise would have to be maids and sharecroppers.
A lot of times you have to dip into the independent world to find the really great projects and the really great scripts. They're out there - you just have to search hard.
I don't like gurus. I don't like people who ask you to follow or believe. I like people who ask you to think independently.
My heart is in independent film-making. For me, it's where the fun, gritty storytelling is being told.
I always gravitate towards the independent side of things, just because those are the stories I always fall in love with, but you don't really get paid, and living in Los Angeles is expensive, and I have a mortgage to pay. So it's good to jump onto a studio film and then in all my other time do small passion projects.
The problem with independent films is that they can be hit or miss. I've seen scripts that have blown me away. But there have to be all the right ingredients in place to make them work: the director, cast, publicity, distribution.
I was brought up by my mum and my sister. I've always been around independent women; I like that. Anybody who's a fake I don't like and I don't talk to.
If Disney wants ideas for a princess, make her an independent woman, one who is not afraid to face the daily struggles of life, and refuses to wear expensive dresses. Because we all know life is messy, and those dresses are too pretty to get dirty.
I was raised to be independent.
Corruption is a huge problem and the poor and the powerless are often its most egregious victims. But it is not an accident that the most effective bureaucracies in the world rely much more on internal controls rather than on independent ombudsmen.
