My parents [are my hero]. They've helped me be who I am.

[ Hollywood] is a patriarchy, headed by men and built for men.

If you're doing something outside of dominant culture there's not an easy place for you. You will have to do it yourself.

Don't wait for permission to do something creative.

When you say cultural icon, I scrunch my nose.

When I went out to shoot for the first time, I thought this was going to be about the prison industrial complex, purely about prison for profit and the ways in which there's an industry making money and profiting off punishment.

I'm making and marketing my films, by any means necessary, and enjoying life while I do so.