I'm worried just as much about Donald Trump as that crazy guy in North Korea - and he has a nuclear code. I'm worrying about that.

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.

The soul exists partly in eternity and partly in time.

Driving home I switch on the radio and one of those old Motown voices comes on and reaches my heart.

...a sensual life is a ghostly existence where you live on the surface and your soul passes through everything, touching nothing ...

I told myself a thousand times every single day I needed to forget you. I forgot to forget, and I forgot what I told myself" From "The Jasmine Tree: Love in the time of revolutions

In the years since, I've discovered there's a lot to be said for boredom.

We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting.

The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is the pretense of intelligent ignorance. The former is teachable; the latter is not.

These Songs are not meant to be understood, you understand. They are only meant to terrify & comfort.

There's only one proof of the Holy Ghost in your life and that's a holy life.

Pre-emptive war might fall within the framework of international law.