If people go to IMDB, they will see that I'm very comfortable with independent cinema, and doing studio films too. For me this is not an either/or situation.

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.

I don't think you should have to pay to look at graffiti. You should only pay if you want to get rid of it.

'My Father's Eyes' is very personal. I realized that the closest I ever came to looking in my father's eyes was when I looked into my son's eyes.

Ballet is important and significant - yes. But first of all, it is a pleasure.

[Donald] Trump is obsessed with name calling.

Never ever do business with the government. Be in love with them, never marry them.

High and low rest on each other.

Ethically, what one generation tolerates the next may treat as normal.

If a FIFA World Cup tournament had been held every year between 1982 and 1986, France would have won two or three.

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!

The people are only tools, a means used by God. But they are not the sourse of help, aid, or salvation of any kind. Only God is. The people cannot even create the wing of a fly (Quran, 22:73).