Since the days of slavery, if you were a good singer or dancer, it was your job to perform for the master after dinner.

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'm sorry. I know you loved her. It was hard not to.

Only in death will we have our own names since only in death are we no longer part of the effort. In death we become heroes.

Because Christ's life-story tells us about God and His complete work, let us learn the meaning of God's appearance "in the flesh" so that we could know Him better (1 Timothy 3:16).

It's a sad state when more people retweet than buy records.

It is a moral achievement on the part of the doctor who ought not to let himself be repelled by sickness and corruption.

Proofs are the last thing looked for by a truly religious mind which feels the imaginary fitness of its faith.

I think that if one's role doesn't correspond to what one says, if one's life doesn't correspond to what one preaches, if one is not true to one's people, someone else will come as a substitute.

Beware of those who try to sell you simple answers to complex questions.

What I like about the jokes, to me it's a lot of logic, no matter how crazy they are. It has to make absolute sense, or it won't be funny.

My dear girl. I am his family. I am permanent. You are only temporary.