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

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.

When someone loves you, the way they talk about you is different. You feel safe and comfortable.

Some people are commended for a giddy kind of good-humor, which is as much a virtue as drunkenness.

Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius.

We deceive ourselves when giving respect to the person for whom we have surrendered ourselves, when we respectively expect them to be as we would wish them to be.

Chess strength in general and chess strength in a specific match are by no means one and the same thing.

I know that human happiness never remains long in the same place.

I think one remains the same person throughout, merely passing, as it were, i these lapses of time from one room to another, but all in the same house.

The chef has kids complaining to their parents the food they get in school is better than what they get at home. He's turned this group of kids into curious, adventurous eaters.

Although my spelling is still sometimes poor, I have managed to overcome the worst of my difficulties through training myself to concentrate.

I think it's my motivation and my dedication to prove everyone wrong whenever they tell me I can't do something.