I've never seen black men with fine white women. They be ugly. Mugly dogs.

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.

You're supposed to be made in His image, and yet you're all such ungrateful pieces of filth. You only bow your heads when you want something.

Doing research on the Web is like using a library assembled piecemeal by pack rats and vandalized nightly.

I do good things in my life, too. It's just that none of them are funny.

I think I've really exhausted the magical. It was a lot of fun, but I've put it behind me for the time being.

I kind of feel like everybody knew anyway. I was on tour with a bubble gut!

Do you really think I'm going to go on record telling you the craziest thing I've ever done. There's a reel in my brain, and I think I'll keep it there. No regrets, though.

I thought beforehand, if [Marie] Henein is going to be a shark, I'm going to be a jellyfish, because you can't catch a jellyfish. Not that I didn't want to be caught, I just wanted to present solid.

You cannot do something just for the money. You have to do things you believe in and eventually you will make money.

At my age it is unseemly to be pessimistic.

In my experience, the hardest thing about having someone "come out" to you is the "pretending to be surprised" part.