Spike Lee Quotes

Since the days of slavery, if you were a good singer or dancer, it was your job to perform for the master after dinner.

Everything I do is always scrutinised. But that’s all I’ll say about that.

I didn’t dream about being a director. I didn’t know I wanted to do something with film until the summer between my sophomore and junior years at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

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.

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 knew I was never going to play professional sport, but I loved playing and I went to all the games I could afford to.

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.

Fight the power that be. Fight the power.

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.

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 am a hybrid. I do independent films and also do Hollywood films – I love them both.

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.

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.

What’s the difference between Hollywood characters and my characters? Mine are real.

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 think people who have faults are a lot more interesting than people who are perfect.

And one thing Hollywood does well is sequels.

I don’t dictate, you don’t dictate to Stevie Wonder, not successfully.

I had a great education. From kindergarten to John Dewey High School in Coney Island, I am public-school educated.

I respect the audience’s intelligence a lot, and that’s why I don’t try to go for the lowest common denominator.

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 tend to favour films that have multiple plot and story lines, multiple characters and ensemble pieces.

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.

People of color have a constant frustration of not being represented, or being misrepresented, and these images go around the world.

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.

I don’t think I’m a total pessimist, so I think you can find hope in all my films.

You have to do the research. If you don’t know about something, then you ask the right people who do.

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.

A lot of times, we censor ourselves before the censor even gets there.

I live in New York City, the stories of my films take place in New York; I’m a New York filmmaker.

A lot of times you get credit for stuff in your movies you didn’t intend to be there.

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.

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.

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.

‘She’s Gotta Have It’ was shot in twelve days and two six-day weeks.