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" If I was just a creator, I would still be back in the Lincoln annex in the Post Office. "

Melvin Van Peebles

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" I went to a number of schools when I was a kid on the south side of Chicago. "

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" Blacks are tired of seeing whites saying, 'I understand you.' You need a black to direct a black film. "

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" Making 'Sweetback' took an exorbitant amount of energy and time. "

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" The studios didn't really take independent films seriously, till 'Sweetback' was such a financial success. "

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" The graphic novel is a great form that can be used to marry the book format with the movie. "

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" Don't ask me something if you don't want to know. Because I will tell you. "

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" Personally, I do movies the way I cook: I put in what I like in case nobody else likes it and I have to eat it for the rest of the week. "

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" I'm from the Southside of Chicago. "

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" A bumblebee can't fly. He's aerodynamically unsound. But he doesn't know that. "

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" I said to my kids, 'Learn the business of America if you want to be an artist in America. The rest of that stuff, the art part, you could pick up in an hour and a half.' "

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" I didn't even know I had a legacy. "

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" I was getting my Ph.D. in Holland - I speak Dutch - for a number of years before I moved to France because I had one of those offers you couldn't turn down. They offered me to come and do my films. "

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" Over time, you accumulate a lot of life material. "

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" My life and career is defined by the constant pursuit of new forms of culture and self-expression. "

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" Truth of the matter is, I can't even read or write music. "

Melvin Van Peebles

" Before I made 'Sweetback,' I had a three-picture deal with Columbia and enough juice, if I was real clever with it, to proclaim that I wanted to do an independent film. "

Melvin Van Peebles

" The artistic world is one of high nuance. "

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" I have no illusions about running. I hate running. If I could feel as good as I felt at 30 without running, I wouldn't do it, but that's not the way it works! So - no pain, no gain. "

Melvin Van Peebles

" I intend to stay dangerous. "

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" What some folks find funny, other folks find tragic. "

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" Music - some people just don't know that part of me. "

Melvin Van Peebles

" My first feature, I made in France. There's a great respect for the author there - they don't change your stuff. "

Melvin Van Peebles

" Whitey is uptight about offending blacks without really knowing what offends blacks. "

Melvin Van Peebles

" I do what I want to do. "

Melvin Van Peebles

" I walk down the street; the garbagemen will shout at me, and we'll talk. That's a pleasure when people feel, 'If he can do it, I can, too.' "

Melvin Van Peebles

" Scars are the price you pay for success. "

Melvin Van Peebles

" When I was in the Air Force, if I walked into a restaurant, in about eight or nine minutes the M.P.'s would show up and drag me out because someone had called saying that someone was impersonating an officer. "

Melvin Van Peebles

" Many times, I get young people asking, 'What do you think about black movies?' And I say, 'What are you talking about? You mean Hollywood movies that have black people in them?' It's gone back to that, and that's not the same thing as a black movie. "

Melvin Van Peebles

" No one - black, white, or any different - walks away from a three-picture deal with a studio. That's every filmmaker's dream. But it wasn't mine. "

Melvin Van Peebles

" One day, I was sitting in a movie theater, and I said, 'What the hell? I can do better than that.' "

Melvin Van Peebles