“You don't set out to build a wall. You say, 'I'm going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid.' You do that every single day. And soon you have a wall.”
— Will Smith
From Will Smith's interview with Charlie Rose, referencing a childhood experience. Also detailed in the prologue of his 2021 memoir Will, co-written with Mark Manson.
I was eleven. My father tore down a wall and told me and my brother to rebuild it. I looked at that empty space and thought it was impossible. But Dad didn't care about the wall. He cared about the brick. One brick, laid right. Then the next one. Eighteen months later we had a wall. Every film, every album started the same way. Stop staring at the wall. Pick up the brick in front of you.