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" A lot of times you get credit for stuff in your movies you didn't intend to be there. "

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" 'She's Gotta Have It' and 'School Daze,' I really didn't know what I was doing. And the biggest indicator of that was the acting. 'Do the Right Thing' was like the first film where I really felt comfortable working with actors. "

Do The Right Thing

" 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. "

" People sometimes forget all the films that we've done. They remember the likes of 'Malcolm X' and 'Do the Right Thing.' But I've been working since 1986. From the beginning, I was determined to not just be a flash in the pan. I've got to keep up with Woody Allen. He's lapping me. "

Do The Right Thing

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

" Making films has got to be one of the hardest endeavors known to humankind. "

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

" 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. "

" I respect the audience's intelligence a lot, and that's why I don't try to go for the lowest common denominator. "

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

" I don't get tripped up in technology. I use technology as a tool. 'Oldboy' we shot Two Pro 35mm. For 'Da Blood of Jesus,' we shot digitally. We shot the new Sony F55. It's a 4K camera. "

" I live in New York City, the stories of my films take place in New York; I'm a New York filmmaker. "

" I think my work shows that I love women. I understand where these types of criticisms are coming from because black people have been so dogged out in the media, they're just extra sensitive. "

" Mike Tyson is the most complex person I've ever met in my life. I've known Mike since 1986. We're both from Brooklyn. I didn't know him growing up, but once he became heavyweight champion, I knew him then. "

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

" A spine to my films that's become more evident to me is that many are about the choices people make, and the reverberations of those choices. You go this way, or that way, and either way, there's going to be consequences. "

" I tend to favour films that have multiple plot and story lines, multiple characters and ensemble pieces. "

" '25th Hour,' like a lot of my films, takes place in New York City. I've been very fortunate to make films in the city that I live. I mean, it's great going home at night instead of being on location. "

" 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. "

" What's the difference between Hollywood characters and my characters? Mine are real. "

" I didn't dream about being a director. I didn't know I wanted to do something with film until the summer between my sophomore and junior years at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. "

" I am a hybrid. I do independent films and also do Hollywood films - I love them both. "

" 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. "

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

" My cousin Malcolm Lee is also a filmmaker. "

" Amongst black people, you have always heard it said that once a black man reaches a certain level, especially if you are an entertainer, you get a white trophy woman. I didn't make that up. "

" It has been my observation that parents kill more dreams than anybody. "

" 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. "

" When I went to school, you had to take art, you had to play an instrument. You had to play an instrument. But it's all degraded since then. I do not know what kind of nation we are that is cutting art, music, and gym out of the public-school curriculum. "

" 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. "

" 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. "