Sheila Atim Quotes

Making a film with a 99% Black female cast is great, but if we are not allowed to explore what our hairstyles will look like or if we're not allowed to imbue the film and our characters in the story with details that are specific to our experience, then it doesn't mean anything.

Whatever choices you make in life, it’s OK – there’s more life, you know?

Those excluding people of colour are robbing themselves – they just don’t realise it.

Progress doesn’t go in a straight line. Representation moves forward, then retreats. It’s a journey. I don’t know what the final destination looks like, or if there even is one. It’s just about pushing forward.

You don’t want to be a freedom fighter every time you enter a job.

I think that’s something that you have to keep learning and recalibrating and experiencing through life.

I think there can be this perception that, people who have some kind of practice, whether it's meditation or spiritual practice or whatever, have got it all figured out, and there's a kind of righteousness about it.

You can’t get a complete history of anything in two hours – particularly the slave trade.

You know, always being positive, always wanting to try things, even if at first glance, it isn’t quite clear what the outcome is going to be.

Ultimately it’s a case of sink or swim, ‘I’ve always had that “sink-or-swim” thing about my own career too,At difficult moments, it’s like: “Okay, you’re not gonna sink so let’s figure something out.” Take a moment, have a whinge... and then get on with it.’

You can’t say Shakespeare has nothing to offer because he’s a white man.