Quotes By Spike Lee

I like to work with the same people when I can, and you want to get people with the same interests that you have, and the same aesthetic.

We grew up in a very creative environment and were exposed to the arts at a very young age, so it's not a surprise that all of us are in some form of the arts.

I always give the example, if you turn on the radio today, black radio, Lenny Kravitz is not black. Bob Marley wasn't black: in the beginning, only white college stations played Bob Marley.

My cousin Malcolm Lee is also a filmmaker.

I knew I was never going to play professional sport, but I loved playing and I went to all the games I could afford to.

I am very fortunate I can send my kids to private school, but everybody does not have the money. If you cannot get your kid in a good school today, your kids are going to be behind the eight ball.

Fight the power that be. Fight the power.

My grandmother lived to be 100 years old. Her grandmother was a slave, yet she was a college graduate in the Spellman class of 1917. She taught art for 50 years and she saved her Social Security checks for her children's education.

It comes down to this: black people were stripped of our identities when we were brought here, and it's been a quest since then to define who we are.

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 don't like acting; not in front of the camera.

I think that every minority in the United States of America knows everything about the dominant culture. From the time you can think, you are bombarded with images from TV, film, magazines, newspapers.

People of color have a constant frustration of not being represented, or being misrepresented, and these images go around the world.

Violence is a part of America. I don't want to single out rap music. Let's be honest. America's the most violent country in the history of the world, that's just the way it is. We're all affected by it.

I'm blessed, I can afford to send my children to private school.

First of all, what in this world does not revolve around money? But money is a big part of film, unlike a lot of other art forms.

'Do the Right Thing' was my first union film. I looked at the rosters, and for the most part, it was white males. Especially the Teamsters. So we had some conversations.

For me, I believe in God, God is real.

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 don't think I'm a total pessimist, so I think you can find hope in all my films.

If we became students of Malcolm X, we would not have young black men out there killing each other like they're killing each other now. Young black men would not be impregnating young black women at the rate going on now. We'd not have the drugs we have now, or the alcoholism.

I had a great education. From kindergarten to John Dewey High School in Coney Island, I am public-school educated.

I get offered to do stuff where the money's nice but it's not something I want to do - I get offered a lot of commercials too.

Right now a lot of people are still choosing to go to Toronto instead of shooting in New York City, something I haven't done and something I hope I'll never have to do.

I think it is very important that films make people look at what they've forgotten.

People think I'm this angry black man walking around in a constant state of rage.

I think people who have faults are a lot more interesting than people who are perfect.

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.

And one thing Hollywood does well is sequels.

Any film I do is not going to change the way black women have been portrayed, or black people have been portrayed, in cinema since the days of D.W. Griffith.