Spike Lee Quotes

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.

I think black people have to be in control of their own image because film is a powerful medium. We can't just sit back and let other people define our existence.

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.

I think it is very important that films make people look at what they've forgotten.

It gets dangerous when you start allowing people to validate your work.

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.

When you love something it's not a job anymore.

All directors are storytellers, so the motivation was to tell the story I wanted to tell. That's what I love.

American slavery was not a Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It was a holocaust. My ancestors are slaves. Stolen from Africa. I will honor them.

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

Power is knowing your past.

I ain't Martin Luther King. I don't need a dream. I have a plan.

I may have been born yesterday, but I stayed up all night.

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.

Those that'll tell don't know, and those that know won't tell.

I don't think my films are going to get rid of racism or prejudice. I think the best thing my films can do is provoke discussion.

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.

It has been my observation that parents kill more dreams than anybody.

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.

Fight the power that be. Fight the power.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

America doesn't have the moral right to tell other people what to do. To say the whole world has to fall into line is you-know-what. I hope more people will rise up.

It is really important that young people find something that they want to do and pursue it with passion. I'm very passionate about filmmaking. It's what I love to do.

Our greatness, our talent has never been the question. It's been a matter of grappling for control over what we do.

We’ve gone through the names—Negro, African American, African, Black. For me that’s an indication of a people still trying to find their identity. Who determines what is black?

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

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

I really don't deal with hypotheticals.

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

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

My cousin Malcolm Lee is also a filmmaker.

Cause mo better makes it mo better.

I'm not the go-to guy. Everybody is trying to tell their story and have different ways of telling it.

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.

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.

We're the most violent nation on earth. There's no getting away from that. But you've got to look at it on a broader level.

I collect names for characters. Names are valuable; they can be your first source of insight into a character.