Every African-American I know has two faces. There's the face that we have for ourselves and the face we put on for white America for the places we have to get to.
Lee Daniels
America is fickle. You never know what they're going to go for.
I'm in a great place because I trust people behind the camera as I go off, and I still go back to my day job and do film.
I came to Hollywood to write and found out I don't have the attention span.
I believe in life that you know that everything prepares you for the next thing - whether it's a hit, whether it's not a hit, whether it's a... your failures are your accomplishments because it makes you prepared for whatever it is that you are going to do next.
That's the gift 'Precious' has given me. You really think you're telling a story about a fat black girl, and only fat black girls will understand it, and then you realize we're all Precious.
I'm a filmmaker. I'm always searching for the truth in everything I do. I demand it from my writing partner and my crew, actors, and so hopefully, we're making people think.
Rarely do celebrities and actors speak up for what they believe in.
It's hard for me to accept love. I wish I could lie to you and tell you that it's easy for me, but it's not.
In L.A., I was a talent manager for many years. I represented many African-American actors. After a while, I became disheartened over the shortage of roles for African Americans.
I went to school at Radnor High School. And I went to a liberal arts college in St. Louis, Missouri, called Lindenwood College.
I am so used to having two faces. A face that I had for black America and a face for white America. When Obama became president, I lost both faces. Now I only have one face.
People enjoy making fun of people who are famous; they love putting people down.
I'm not really vegan. I'm vegan-ish. I have a piece of lamb every now and then.
When I was young, I went to a church where the lighter-skinned you were, the closer you sat to the altar.
I want to learn. I want to stretch my muscles as a director and work under different circumstances.
Most actors want the audience to like them, and that leads to bad acting.
I like to show the grey area in all my characters.
I see the world from a very specific perspective. It is how I grew up. It is what I am proud of, and I vocalize it. And for those who have not experienced my experience, it is odd, and it's not mainstream.
When people don't like the film, I can take a bullet. I don't mind you talking about me, but I'm protective of my actors, because they bared their soul for me.
I've never done a studio movie, let alone worked for a network. Every one of my films has been independently financed.
I believe strongly that characters are five-dimensional, and they're complicated, and life is complicated, and people are complicated.
I love actors, and I'm very protective of them. I trust them. It's a mutual trust.
'Precious' is so not P.C. What I learned from doing the film is that even though I am black, I'm prejudiced. I'm prejudiced against people who are darker than me.
At 19, I was in the streets making money. I was surviving.
I definitely caught the acting bug, but that lasted for about two seconds when I found my way to L.A. and found that my talents were better suited behind the cameras.
The rules are: The only ego is the film, and you have to serve the film.
I've had all types of beautiful girls tell me that they ugly when they look in the mirror, as if it's someone else's reflection they see.
I had trained myself not to go to the bathroom throughout my elementary and junior high school years because I was bullied. And you don't understand why you're being bullied, so you just suppress it.
I have a very clear vision, and I come from film, where director is God, so if there's a clash, it's painful.
To come into my world, I've got some M&Ms and some potato chips, and I'm asking you to move furniture. We're making a movie. We're making it like we're putting on a play.
I wanted to make a black 'Dynasty.'
I'm not Tyler Perry. I'm not Dino De Laurentis. I think it's a bit much to put one's name in front of the film. It makes me uncomfortable.
I come from a family of domestics. I think most African-Americans of my age do. They were trusted by their bosses. I have met so many white people that spent more time with their nannies than they have with their own parents.
My mission is to let black kids know that their dreams can happen.
I look at my movies; I call my movies 'the kid.' It's like I'm giving birth. I'm in the cocoon, you know?
With TV, you're in people's houses every night. And you have so much time to tell stories. I don't know why I didn't do it before.
Some of my friends don't have a cell phone. Patti LaBelle doesn't have a cell phone.
I don't profess to be Shonda Rhimes by any stretch of the imagination, or Dick Wolf. They're icons. I'm a filmmaker.
Most of my friends are dead. I watched friends die in my arms at 5, 6, 8. When I grew up, the rest of my friends died of AIDS.
My kids tell me to Instagram, so I do that. I have a few thousand followers.
My work is therapeutic: 'Monster's Ball,' 'Woodsman' and 'Shadowboxer,' because I don't go to therapy, and I sort of live life through my films.
I don't work with fear, and I don't work with actors that are fearful.
I was always in trouble. I was mischievous. And movies were always a part of my world.
I don't want to sell my soul to Hollywood - to just make run-of-the-mill stuff.
I have a partner, Danny Strong; he's an incredible writer and, really, my backbone. So when we don't see eye to eye, it's painful.
I went from off-off Broadway. I would direct plays in Baldwin Hills. Almost Tyler Perry-like, really trying to express myself in that and not really knowing how to, knowing acting in story, but not really knowing how to technically hold a camera.
I want to go to places that are unexpected of me because people really think they have me pegged.
I don't know what gives me more pleasure: watching my story unfold or going in and watching a room full of black people talking for me and writing words for black people.
I don't know - I haven't seen any of my movies after I finish them. I leave the editing room; I don't go back.
