Mechai Viravaidya Quotes

We also get thousands of suggestions. The default answer is always no.

I've always seen 'no' as a challenge rather than an answer.

Problems are good. Impossible problems are even better.

No, I'm not.

Over the years, I've learned that if you can just hang in there and, regardless of what's presented to you, take it as a challenge and try to bring in something fresh, then it works.

For me, I love doing what is said can't be done.

The best work usually meets the strongest opposition.

What's important is not the accolades and memories of success but the way you respond when opportunities are denied.

Being a creative person is a really personal process so there is no one-size-fits-all advice, that's kind of the first thing I'd say. Because everybody's goals are different. Everybody's talents are different. Some women that I'm talking to want to create a television show. Some women want to be a director. They want to use comedy in different ways, and I find that really fascinating. The main thing I would say is, start! Just do it. Keep going. When people come at you with the negativity and the nos, you've got to ignore it. Push through.

Every walk that I do, there's obstacles in the way. There's always somebody or something that comes across negative, but I live for that sort of thing.

There comes a time in a man's life when to get where he has to go - if there are no doors or windows he walks through a wall.

Dyslexia, though, made me realise that people who say 'but you can't do that' aren't actually very important. I don't take 'no' too seriously.

Without an open-minded mind, you can never be a great success.

We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.

The life of the individual is a continuous combat with errors and obstacles, and no victory is more satisfying than the one achieved against opposition.

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.

You have to play the cards you are dealt and if it has made it harder, it doesn't matter, you still have to get the deal done.

Strong people are made by opposition like kites that go up against the wind.

I always take criticism as a challenge. It's the way I've always looked at it.

Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn't be done.

They say the average person can't make a living in art... but if you tell me there's something I can't do, that's what I have to do.

I tried to get into the National Youth Theatre and didn't, and I tried to get into drama school and didn't, and then I went to university and was really delighted that I went there. I think having the word 'no' can be quite creative.

Sometimes when you're given hurdles, it makes you more creative in the end.

I feel like I've been fighting in music and creating new ways and new opportunities to make things work even when people thought it wouldn't.

A lot of people have a lot of faith in Karole Armitage. They see her as bold, inventive, indefatigable. 'America isn't working out? There's always Europe. Ballet? No? Go modern. Keep going! Show 'em!'