[James] Baldwin is needed even more today because he helps you focus to the essential, to what is important.

Face your reality. You, black or white, are not innocent anymore. Either you have the courage to face it or you will go down together with the whole idea of the American Dream.

Just try to be yourself and resist complacency and ignorance. All you can do is work, work; work and be disciplined.

The system gives you two minutes to phrase a whole history.

There are only one or two geniuses every century.

You need to react. That's the absurdity of Twitter. You can react without thinking now.

I just hope that my films will survive me.

[James] Baldwin "was one of greatest intellectuals of his time. He was an important voice, period, not an important black voice."

Today, I don't even think that people like [James Baldwin] are possible. He would not have that much room.

Your tweet is as important as if you would have written a Ph.D. [dissertation] on the subject.

Why would anything change that has not been changed since the existence of cinema? [James] Baldwin somehow wakes you up to reality. It takes you out of the dream - or out of the nightmare.

America is laughing her way to Hell.

The American Cancer Society tried to ruin my research foundation.

When you get deep ecologists who are philosophers, and they drive cars and take newspapers and don't grow their own vegetables, in fact they're not deep ecologists - they're my enemies.

There is one thing even more vital to science than intelligent methods; and that is, the sincere desire to find out the truth, whatever it may be.

Whoever designed this frigging map was having a laugh. Just around the corner, my arse.

If you are leaping a ravine, the moment of takeoff is a bad time to be considering alternative strategies.

I think you have to be completely merciless with yourself.

By keeping her heart protected, she'll never ever feel rejected.

Every man at three years old is half his height

The biggest debt is always the government debt; it's always debt that government has run up on your behalf.