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

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.

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'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.

Do great things, Laure, be happy, or at least do your best to be. Life is fragile

Europeans say they are proud of their social fabric, of strong rights for workers and the weak in society.

You're not stealing anything, you're not breaking anything, so I'd guess you're Stephanie.

Satan never gets very far from the Bible. And every one of the cults, even Satanism, uses the Bible.

I had to go see the Glee concert with my daughter - oh my God, shoot me.

The process of quitting smoking doesn't end with the last cigarette. It's not quitting itself, the real key is staying quit

The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have.

Send forth a tiny ripple of hope.

When a performer goes out on a stage, they may feel the audience is judging every aspect of them and their life. In fact, all that poor audience is doing is waiting to be entertained a little.

Robespierre, crippled and blind, has yet to be healed to the knowledge that service - his desire - is a deed of savage-speaking gentleness, not soft-spoken savagery.