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" Black people who want to do comedy go into standup, where our heroes opened a lot of doors. Improv doesn't have a ton of heroes that you can look to. "

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" When I talk about movies like 'Rosemary's Baby' and 'Stepford Wives,' I really noticed that these movies were able to address fears surround the women's lib movement in a way that was engaging, not preachy, but fun. "

" Part of the desire to live in a post-racial world includes the desire not to have to talk about racism, which includes a false perception that if you are talking about race, then you're perpetuating the notion of race. I reject that. "

" I wanted to be Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, Stanley Kubrick, David Cronenberg, Ridley Scott, James Cameron, and Hitchcock. I'd wanted to be a director since 13, and horror and the suspense thriller were the most powerful genres to me. "

" There is something transformative if you're a black person cheering in a theater and turn to see a white person cheering for the same thing you are. "

" Now that the black experience isn't viewed as box-office death, people are catching up to untapped auteurs. "

" I think the lesson is that when you give black voices a platform and the opportunity to tell our story, we will tell good stories just like anybody else. "

" You can track elections by who was playing that president on 'SNL' at that time. There's the theory that the more likable or charismatic impression would help get the president elected. "

" I was raised that emotion was a good thing. "

" Part of what horror is, is taking risks and going somewhere that people think you're not supposed to be able to go, in the name of expressing real-life fears. "

" Little Haley Joel Osment in 'The Sixth Sense' can see dead people. Well, I can see racist people. "

" There's something kind of horrific about milk. Think about it! Think about what we're doing. Milk is kind of gross. "

" Any time I claimed to be white, that would be unacceptable. It just doesn't make sense in people's minds. If I'm white, how can I walk through a department store and still have people scared that I'm going to rob them? Which, that can still happen. "

" I'd been taught from an early age that I was in the 'other' category on the standardized tests. You know, I had to go down the checklist - Caucasian, African-American, Latino, Asian-Pacific Islander, and then, you know, at the bottom is other. So, you know, very early on I was taught, in a way, that I was somehow this anomaly. "

" African-American music tends to have, at the very least, a glimmer of hope to it - sometimes full-fledged hope. "

African-American

" Nobody wants to see sketch comedy that's the same sketch they've seen time and time again, or that's just a rehash of that thing. "

" I didn't know my father very well; I only met him a few times. "

" We go to the theater to be entertained, but if what is left after you watch the movie is a sort of eye-opening perspective on some social issues, then it can be a really powerful piece of art. "

" I'm obsessed with giving the audience something they don't see coming. "

" As far as writing and directing, I'm very focused on the thriller genre. "

" Obama was the best thing for black nerds everywhere. Finally we had a role model. Before Obama, we basically had Urkel. "

" I think, before Obama, there was a glass ceiling. That's a big change. As a president, I think he was the best. I felt like I could trust his judgment, and he'd take a measured, empathetic approach. I don't see there ever being another Barack Obama. "

" You boil down your influences to a soup, and it all informs you. "

" New York is about as cosmopolitan as it gets. It's a fairly mixed and woke town, so there weren't a lot of situations growing up where I felt like the outsider or the alien. "

" You hear it said time and time again by successful directors: You have to make a movie for yourself. Don't make it for anyone else. "

" I'm a true believer in story. I think when you just tell people to think, people tend to get resistant and defensive and feel like you're accusing them of not thinking. "

" I define 'social thriller' as thriller/horror movies where the ultimate villain is society. "

" I am a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino, who takes time to figure out what his next movie is. "

" It's a no-win situation with politics; it's always going to be stressful. I'm more into the comedy of life. "

" I find campfire stories and urban legends are kind of the bread and butter that inspires a lot of people who are making horror and thriller. There is a nugget of truth behind these sort of cautionary tales. "

" The way I look at it is, when you allow people to submerge themselves into a story, they will react by thinking through what it's about. That's just so much more fun and effective, I think, than a lecture. "