Quote collection
130 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"There's a lot of Americans, black and white, who think that we've arrived where we need to be and nothing else needs to be done and affirmative action needs to be dismantled."
"As a people we do not need anyone else's stamp of approval."
"I don't think racism can be eliminated in my lifetime ... or my children's or grandchildren's. But I think it's something we have to strive for. I'm going to keep working toward that day coming."
"Making films has got to be one of the hardest endeavors known to humankind."
"Fight the power that be. Fight the power."
"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."
"It has been my observation that parents kill more dreams than anybody."
"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 wouldn't be doing motherfu**ing films for almost three decades if every time I did something that someone didn't like I went in a fu**ing cocoon and just hid there and didn't make my art."
"You have to do the research. If you don't know about something, then you ask the right people who do."
"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."
"A lot of times you get credit for stuff in your movies you didn't intend to be there."
"I don't get tripped up in technology. I use technology as a tool. 'Oldboy' we shot Two Pro 35mm. For 'Da Blood of Jesus,' we shot digitally. We shot the new Sony F55. It's a 4K camera."
"If you can't take a hit, you're not going to last long, that's for sure."
"Critics like to build you up, tear you down, and then, if you're lucky, build you up again."
"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 mean, I think there's a lot of hope in my work. I don't think I'm a total pessimist, so I think you can find hope in all my films. Some more than others, but there's definitely... I think we want to convey the feeling of hope with the montage at the end."
"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."
"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."