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.
I think it is very important that films make people look at what they've forgotten.
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.
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.
It has been my observation that parents kill more dreams than anybody.
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.
Fight the power that be. Fight the power.
I think people who have faults are a lot more interesting than people who are perfect.
A lot of times, we censor ourselves before the censor even gets there.
You have to do the research. If you don't know about something, then you ask the right people who do.
'She's Gotta Have It' was shot in twelve days and two six-day weeks.
I've been blessed with the opportunity to express the views of black people who otherwise don't have access to power and the media. I have to take advantage of that while I'm still bankable.
I respect the audience's intelligence a lot, and that's why I don't try to go for the lowest common denominator.
Amongst black people, you have always heard it said that once a black man reaches a certain level, especially if you are an entertainer, you get a white trophy woman. I didn't make that up.
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.
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?'
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.
Making films has got to be one of the hardest endeavors known to humankind.
