Spike Lee Quotes
"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."
- Spike Lee
(Related: Love, Work, Women, People, Media)
"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."
- Spike Lee
(Related: People, African, American, Culture, Saying, State)
"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."
- Spike Lee
(Related: Men, Women, Drugs, Killing, Now, Students)
"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."
- Spike Lee
(Related: People, Quest)
"My cousin Malcolm Lee is also a filmmaker."
- Spike Lee
"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."
- Spike Lee
(Related: People, Hope, Now, Right)
"Since the days of slavery, if you were a good singer or dancer, it was your job to perform for the master after dinner."
- Spike Lee
(Related: Job, Slavery)
"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."
- Spike Lee
(Related: Faults, Film)
"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."
- Spike Lee
(Related: Character, Film, Law)
"I think people who have faults are a lot more interesting than people who are perfect."
- Spike Lee
(Related: People, Faults)
"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."
- Spike Lee
(Related: Age, Environment)
"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."
- Spike Lee
(Related: Action, Americans, Needs, Nothing)
"Fight the power that be. Fight the power."
- Spike Lee
(Related: Power, Fight)
"I think it is very important that films make people look at what they've forgotten."
- Spike Lee
(Related: People)
"A lot of times, we censor ourselves before the censor even gets there."
- Spike Lee
"All directors are storytellers, so the motivation was to tell the story I wanted to tell. That's what I love."
- Spike Lee
(Related: Love, Motivation)
"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."
- Spike Lee
(Related: Change, Women, People, Cinema, Film)
"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."
- Spike Lee
(Related: Time, Film, Photography, Production, Talk)
"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."
- Spike Lee
(Related: Music, Thought, People, Culture, Trying)
"Everything I do is always scrutinised. But that's all I'll say about that."
- Spike Lee
"A lot of times you get credit for stuff in your movies you didn't intend to be there."
- Spike Lee
(Related: Movies, Credit)
"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."
- Spike Lee
(Related: Beginning, College, Example, Today)
"I don't dictate, you don't dictate to Stevie Wonder, not successfully."
- Spike Lee
(Related: Wonder)
"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."
- Spike Lee
(Related: Money, Want)
"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."
- Spike Lee
(Related: Work, People, Want)
"I live in New York City, the stories of my films take place in New York; I'm a New York filmmaker."
- 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."
- Spike Lee
(Related: Night, Rest, Sleep, Spirit)