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

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

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.

Education gives you the ability to know it. Intelligence gives you the capacity to fix it. Wisdom lets you know when to do it.

Don’t expect success to fall from the sky if it didn't evaporate from the sweat of your hands.

Arrival in the world is really a departure and that, which we call departure, is only a return.

If I keep my good character, I shall be rich enough.

Magic is dangerous- but love is more dangerous still

If you start the day reading the obituaries, you live your day a little differently.

A superhuman will is needed in order to write, and I am only a man.

Referees are only human, I think.

There's a certain comfort in being in supporting roles because it's not all on you.