I really feel like becoming a director came from other women saying, 'Yeah, you can do this.' I wanted to direct 'Six Feet Under,' and no, they didn't let me.
People who reach the top of the tree are only those who haven't got the qualifications to detain them at the bottom.
I always prided myself on trying to break the stigma of the 'dumb jock.'
I've never been very good at fitting into boxes.
There are always more people to prove wrong.
We're not just three dumb girls from the ghetto who got lucky.
Always listen to experts. They will tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it.
If a musician dares to get out of the box he's been put in, people get confused. They want people where they can find them! I am fortunate in some respects as I've always been known as someone who 'moves around' and tries different things. But generally, we are supposed to stay where we're put.
While out on the perimeter, women discovered the freedom of badlands. They were curiously free to invent, without having to liberate themselves from the forms and rewards of the cultural norm.
I definitely think we paved the way for other girl groups. We did it very much on our own terms without kowtowing to all the men in the business or being told what to do by anyone. For that we feel very proud.
Other people will call me a rebel, but I just feel like I'm living my life and doing what I want to do. Sometimes people call that rebellion, especially when you're a woman.
I am not defined to be in any mould and I can be whatever I want to be.
When we create the right kind of identity, we can say things to the world around us that they don't actually believe makes sense. We can get them to do things that they don't think they can do.
You do not move forward by following convention. You celebrate those who are different, who are not burdened by 'normality.'
I'm just glad when I was fighting for us to wrestle I would always have people tell me, 'Gail, women's wrestling is for the bathroom breaks, you know they really don't want to see it.' I would get discouraged a little bit but I was very adamant, so I'm glad that we girls proved them wrong.
What I'm trying to do is reinvent what the face of a champion looks like. I'm out there trying to represent for the people who question whether they can become a champion or not.
When I was learning by myself, despite my parents, despite my teachers, despite society, when I was fighting for building my life as a young wire walker at age 16, I didn't have feelings, I had certainties.
Raise your ambition beyond where you're capable of now. There's nothing about my hometown that said I'd be working with Fortune 50 CEO's, Olympians, at the highest level.
You always feel like you've got something to prove, whether it be to yourself or somebody else. I can think of plenty of people along the way telling me I'll be nothing, working at McDonald's, doing things like that. The whole time, you're just trying to prove them wrong.
Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom.
After 'Muriel's Wedding,' I first went to America, and I was sent all these scripts about fat girls overcoming hurdles. Something in me knew not to go down that road, even if it was a good script.
If you're going to reach for it, reach all the way for it. Albums like 'Purple Rain' and 'Thriller' and those kind of records, you had to reach far above the din of cynicism and modern living to get to that place, against all the odds.
I had that laser focus, identified what I wanted when I was a kid, and never let anything get in my way. If you look on paper at who I am and what I sound like, and what I look like, you wouldn't say, 'Go into broadcasting.' It's just what I wanted to do - I knew that I could do it, and I never let anyone tell me that I couldn't.
I have been underestimated for decades. I have done very well that way.
When somebody says I can't do something, it motivates me to do it.
