A spine to my films that's become more evident to me is that many are about the choices people make, and the reverberations of those choices. You go this way, or that way, and either way, there's going to be consequences.
Spike Lee
Don't think that because you haven't heard from me for a while that I went to sleep. I am still here, like a spirit roaming the night. Thirsty, hungry, seldom stopping to rest.
I think it is very important that films make people look at what they've forgotten.
It has been my observation that parents kill more dreams than anybody.
People of color have a constant frustration of not being represented, or being misrepresented, and these images go around the world.
It comes down to this: black people were stripped of our identities when we were brought here, and it's been a quest since then to define who we are.
All directors are storytellers, so the motivation was to tell the story I wanted to tell. That's what I love.
I'm just trying to tell a good story and make thought-provoking, entertaining films. I just try and draw upon the great culture we have as a people, from music, novels, the streets.
I'm very careful about how I portray violence in my films. I do believe that violence, especially violent video games, are not a good thing for young kids.
I'd like to state that Spike Lee is not saying that African American culture is just for black people alone to enjoy and cherish. Culture is for everybody.
You have to do the research. If you don't know about something, then you ask the right people who do.
I respect the audience's intelligence a lot, and that's why I don't try to go for the lowest common denominator.
I think people who have faults are a lot more interesting than people who are perfect.
Fight the power that be. Fight the power.
A lot of times, we censor ourselves before the censor even gets there.
Any time you talk about the look of the film, it's not just the director and the director of photography. You have to include the costume designer and the production designer.
I think it would be very boring dramatically to have a film where everybody was a lawyer or doctor and had no faults. To me, the most important thing is to be truthful.
I'm riding my man Obama. I think he's a visionary. Actually, Barack told me the first date he took Michelle to was 'Do the Right Thing.' I said, Thank God I made it. Otherwise you would have taken her to 'Soul Man.' Michelle would have been like 'What's wrong with this brother?'
'She's Gotta Have It' was shot in twelve days and two six-day weeks.
I like to work with the same people when I can, and you want to get people with the same interests that you have, and the same aesthetic.
Mike Tyson is the most complex person I've ever met in my life. I've known Mike since 1986. We're both from Brooklyn. I didn't know him growing up, but once he became heavyweight champion, I knew him then.
My grandmother lived to be 100 years old. Her grandmother was a slave, yet she was a college graduate in the Spellman class of 1917. She taught art for 50 years and she saved her Social Security checks for her children's education.
Violence is a part of America. I don't want to single out rap music. Let's be honest. America's the most violent country in the history of the world, that's just the way it is. We're all affected by it.
People sometimes forget all the films that we've done. They remember the likes of 'Malcolm X' and 'Do the Right Thing.' But I've been working since 1986. From the beginning, I was determined to not just be a flash in the pan. I've got to keep up with Woody Allen. He's lapping me.
Everything I do is always scrutinised. But that's all I'll say about that.
'Red Hook Summer' is another chapter in my chronicles of Brooklyn.
I always give the example, if you turn on the radio today, black radio, Lenny Kravitz is not black. Bob Marley wasn't black: in the beginning, only white college stations played Bob Marley.
Any film I do is not going to change the way black women have been portrayed, or black people have been portrayed, in cinema since the days of D.W. Griffith.
I think my work shows that I love women. I understand where these types of criticisms are coming from because black people have been so dogged out in the media, they're just extra sensitive.
There's an unwritten law that you cannot have a Jewish character in a film who isn't 100 percent perfect, or you're labeled anti-Semitic.
If we became students of Malcolm X, we would not have young black men out there killing each other like they're killing each other now. Young black men would not be impregnating young black women at the rate going on now. We'd not have the drugs we have now, or the alcoholism.
I am very fortunate I can send my kids to private school, but everybody does not have the money. If you cannot get your kid in a good school today, your kids are going to be behind the eight ball.
'25th Hour,' like a lot of my films, takes place in New York City. I've been very fortunate to make films in the city that I live. I mean, it's great going home at night instead of being on location.
'She's Gotta Have It' and 'School Daze,' I really didn't know what I was doing. And the biggest indicator of that was the acting. 'Do the Right Thing' was like the first film where I really felt comfortable working with actors.
We grew up in a very creative environment and were exposed to the arts at a very young age, so it's not a surprise that all of us are in some form of the arts.
I had a great education. From kindergarten to John Dewey High School in Coney Island, I am public-school educated.
I don't dictate, you don't dictate to Stevie Wonder, not successfully.
And one thing Hollywood does well is sequels.
My cousin Malcolm Lee is also a filmmaker.
First of all, what in this world does not revolve around money? But money is a big part of film, unlike a lot of other art forms.
People think I'm this angry black man walking around in a constant state of rage.
I am a hybrid. I do independent films and also do Hollywood films - I love them both.
I'm blessed, I can afford to send my children to private school.
What's the difference between Hollywood characters and my characters? Mine are real.
Since the days of slavery, if you were a good singer or dancer, it was your job to perform for the master after dinner.
I think that every minority in the United States of America knows everything about the dominant culture. From the time you can think, you are bombarded with images from TV, film, magazines, newspapers.
The truth is I've been doing Kickstarter before there was Kickstarter; there was no Internet. Social Media was writing letters, making phone calls, beating the bushes.
I used the principles of Kickstarter to make 'She's Gotta Have It.' We filmed that in 1985 to 1986. The final cost was $175,000. I didn't have that money. It was friends, grants, donations. We saved our bottles for the nickel deposit.
A lot of times you get credit for stuff in your movies you didn't intend to be there.
Right now a lot of people are still choosing to go to Toronto instead of shooting in New York City, something I haven't done and something I hope I'll never have to do.
