You know that first of all your films have to make money no matter who you are.

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.

There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed . . . And all went to be taxed everyone into his own city.

No office in the land is more important than that of being a citizen.

Temptation is a dress rehearsal for a karmic experience of negativity.

If I hadn't started painting, I would have raised chickens.

The wicked will gnaw their tongues for anguish and pain; they will curse God and look upwards. There the dogs of hell, pride, malice, revenge, rage, horror, despair, continually devout them.

Apart from earning an awful lot of money, why would you go to Hollywood?

I think life without Coronation Street would be unthinkable. It's part of all our lives.

Nothing belongs to you or me. Nothing belongs. Everything, everything, everything simply IS.

By creating compelling content, you can become a celebrity.

The past is what provides us with the building blocks. Our job today is to create new buildings out of them.