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" As a navigator, I started studying astronomy because sometimes you're not able to use the equipment, so you'd have to do it the old-fashioned way, figuring out what you were seeing in the sky. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Seeing
Sky
Sometimes
Related Quotes:
" 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. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Me
Down
Speak
" 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
Pain
Hate
Good
" Whitey is uptight about offending blacks without really knowing what offends blacks. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Blacks
Without
Knowing
" I'm not a normal director. You can't look at me that way. What's kept me alive is my technical skill at doing other things. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Skill
Alive
Doing
" What happened when 'Sweetback' made all that money, the studios were in a very difficult position. They wanted the money, but they didn't the message. This marked the advent of the caricatures which became known as blaxploitation. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Difficult
Position
Money
" Somebody once asked me, 'Melvin, how'd you get to the top?' It was simple. Nobody would let me in at the bottom. "
Melvin Van Peebles
You
Me
Bottom
" The studios didn't really take independent films seriously, till 'Sweetback' was such a financial success. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Take
Financial
Seriously
" I do what I want to do. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Want
" It wasn't really me who invented rap. I stole the idea from Aristide Bruant. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Invented
Idea
Rap
" Truth of the matter is, I can't even read or write music. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Write
Matter
Truth
" 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
Air Force
Me
Restaurant
" Before me, music soundtracks were sort of afterthoughts. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Music
Sort
Me
" After 'Don't Play Us Cheap,' I got very busy with theater and Wall Street. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Play
Wall
Us
" 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
Say
Movies
Think
" You've got to really check on what you're doing: check and recheck it seven other times to be prepared. Sometimes, people get carried away with the artistic-ness of the endeavor and don't quite have their game face on when the time comes. It's always a pretty costly mistake. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Face
You
Time
" Music - some people just don't know that part of me. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Some People
Me
Music
" Blacks are tired of seeing whites saying, 'I understand you.' You need a black to direct a black film. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Need
Saying
You
" I've never been to film school. I had to leave this country to make a film. All they would let me do in Hollywood was be a messenger. "
Melvin Van Peebles
School
Country
Film
" The artistic world is one of high nuance. "
Melvin Van Peebles
High
World
Nuance
" 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
Respect
Change
France
" There is a downside to affordable technology, and that's mediocrity. I mean, just 'cause you can afford it don't mean you can do it. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Mean
You Can Do It
Technology
" In trying to cross over to the mainstream, some people stopped writing what they witnessed. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Some People
Writing
People
" Scars are the price you pay for success. "
Melvin Van Peebles
You
Price
Scars
" Blacks had a huge role in settling the West, but you'd never know it from Western movies. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Never
Know
Movies
" I didn't even know I had a legacy. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Even
Had
Know
" I graduated from college when I was 20. To get enough money to finish college, I went into the ROTC, and I was an officer in the Air Force before I could buy a drink. "
Melvin Van Peebles
College
Enough
Money
" 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. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Way
Nobody
Eat
" The graphic novel is a great form that can be used to marry the book format with the movie. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Used
Movie
Book
" 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
Black
Different
Dream
" It must be horrible to do things that you don't like hoping to please other people, and they don't like it either, and you've got to eat it. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Eat
You
Horrible