Top 15 Quotes & Sayings by Pamela Yates

Destiny doesn't control your life, but it does place you on a path. It's how you walk down that path that determines stories I tell.

I'm an eclectic and avid filmgoer. I try to see everything from romantic comedies to blockbusters to art house films, world cinema and documentaries.

I'm a storyteller who uses all of the beauty and power of cinema to tell tales of human struggles for positive social change.

If you make a great film full of emotion, of pathos, people want to continue to know more, to work harder.

My advice to emerging documentary filmmakers would be: try to find other people, a group, a cooperative that you can work with. Filmmaking is hard and lonely and decidedly unglamorous. Find like-minded souls and share the joy and the misery.

I believe that those who believe in the power of human rights must find new ways to address economic injustice - and on a scale commensurate with the millions of people around the world that are mired in poverty.

I truly value the cinema experience, the tribal gathering in the dark to watch something larger than life. I like to sit in the first row with no heads in front of mine, and become one with the screen. I always stay for the complete credits so I can linger in the film's story just a little longer.

Like a human rights lawyer who uses the law to rectify wrongs, I use filmic storytelling for the same effect.

The biggest misconception about me and my work is that I only make political films denouncing human-rights atrocities, even though all of my films are about people fighting for their rights and their quest for justice. My films aren't depressing, are very human, and always offer a way forward.

Witnessing is the essence of being a documentary filmmaker. Capturing moments in time; never knowing how history will judge them.

The digital revolution has had a democratizing effect. Now anyone can be a filmmaker, but to be a good filmmaker is as hard as it ever was.

I'm both an artist / filmmaker and a human rights defender.

Everyone has access to a pen and paper, but to be a great writer is difficult.

When you make a documentary film, after many years the only thing you remember is what you put into the film, not what you took out.

Celebrate your victories and mark your defeats. Ultimately documentary filmmaking is not a job, it's a calling.