 All directors are storytellers, so the motivation was to tell the story I wanted to tell. That's what I love. |
| I think it is very important that films make people look at what they've forgotten. |
| I get offered to do stuff where the money's nice but it's not something I want to do - I get offered a lot of commercials too. |
| I live in New York City, the stories of my films take place in New York; I'm a New York filmmaker. |
| I think people who have faults are a lot more interesting than people who are perfect. |
| A lot of times you get credit for stuff in your movies you didn't intend to be there. |
| 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. |
| 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'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. |
| 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. |
| Everything I do is always scrutinised. But that's all I'll say about that. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| A lot of times, we censor ourselves before the censor even gets there. |
| Since the days of slavery, if you were a good singer or dancer, it was your job to perform for the master after dinner. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
