I really took filmmaking very seriously... It was an honor and then a crutch also, because at a young age, I was like, I guess I'm a serious filmmaker. I never set out to be a serious filmmaker. I just set out to make movies.
John Singleton
We have these rules, the 'hero rules.' Like, a hero doesn't slouch. A hero walks proudly with his head up. A hero walks with a purpose. A hero's always a gentleman.
It's cool for me because I'm a director, but I'm also a teacher. I'm a lover of cinema, and I love working with people who are hungry and have the energy to really do better work.
There's this guy: his name, Sedik Ali. He's like the African Kurosawa. You know how Kurosawa does stuff from feudal Japan? This guy does the feudal system of Africa.
The plain truth is, 'Fruitvale Station' was made totally outside the Hollywood studio system, and every ounce of the picture feels authentic. The lives of the people involved in the movie will never be the same.
What's interesting when you see 'Black Panther' is you realize it couldn't have been directed by anybody else but Ryan Coogler. It's a great adventure movie, and it works on all those different levels as entertainment, but it has this kind of cultural through-line that is so specific that it makes it universal.
My formative years would be in South Central Los Angeles. It was a really volatile environment, but, I always say, when you're living in the hood, you don't live this life where you're crying every day, downtrodden every day.
At heart, I'm a dude from South Central Los Angeles. We roll the way we roll because we had survival tactics; we had to learn how to adapt. That's just me.
Ja Rule not doing '2 Fast 2 Furious' changed Ludacris's life.
When I was in my 20s, I was out of control in terms of what I would do to defend my vision. There are black film-makers and storytellers who take a back seat to just get it done. It's good, but it's not right there. It's been compromised.
I make notes about things I see in films that really affect me, like the ending of 'Jules and Jim.' I think about how I can utilize things in my work. And I have a team of people who keep me down to earth.
You can only really write about what you know about.
Crunk music is the music of the South, it pervades every club and nightclub not only in America, but all over the world.
I already have legitimacy as a filmmaker and now I'm trying to do stuff that's just fun. Until I find a cool tangible subject again that I want to tackle.
'Baby Boy' is one of my favourite films, and Tyrese keeps telling everybody we're going to make a sequel. I mean, we have a story right now but we don't know where we're going to take it.
In 'Boyz N the Hood,' every female character was three-dimensional.
I like John Hughes movies.
I'm not a Beverly Hills dude.
The more people who see a film, the more life it has. But I don't like when people watch DVDs and look at two scenes, but they don't look at the whole movie. Or they sit and talk to each other. You should always watch a movie all the way through.
I've been nominated for Academy Awards, I know what I'm doing.
Now, I'm so relaxed that I have to make myself nervous. I feel better when I'm second and third guessing myself over everything. I play with the mice in my head, all the time.
I met Tupac through Queen Latifah in New York at this party that we were at, at a place downtown called Big City Diner.
One of the biggest regrets of my whole career was turning down an offer to direct on the first season of 'The Wire.' That would have been so perfect for me.
I try to keep focused on the things that really make me happy and just do those same things.
There's hardly any precedent for a guy like me to have the career that I've had. Because I grew up the way I grew up, I'm an in-your-face kind of guy. I developed that as a defense mechanism to survive in the streets. I do that in Hollywood in the service of my passion.
Because, if I'm honest, people in the white world might be appalled, but in the black world, they're making myths out of me. And I know that ain't the life.
I've got passion, and for people who don't, I make them see how trite their lives are.
I've become more relaxed. When I was younger, I had more erratic, nervous tension when I was working.
The cinema saved me from being a delinquent. I could have been, but I didn't get caught up. I never was going to get arrested or anything.
I can't watch a movie and watch just two minutes and turn it off, then go talk to my girlfriend.
I like to be an idea person. I like to pull different people together and find new talent.
Cinema was my rite of passage.
The freshest moments in my films have always been with unknown actors.
I love comics. I like to do everything I used to do when I was 14-years-old.
I wanted to dress cool, and get all the ladies.
I'm a competitive guy.
I'm a huge DVD fan.
I just try to make the best film possible, and once the movie's done, we deal with the DVD.
As a storyteller, when you see somebody who is the character you envisioned, you feel this energy in the room.
All the kids looked up to my father because he was known to be that dude who knocks people out.
When I was small, in the early '70s, my mother took me to see 'Cooley High.'
Producing, in television, we're in the business of voyeurism.
