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" 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
Related Quotes:
" A bumblebee can't fly. He's aerodynamically unsound. But he doesn't know that. "
Melvin Van Peebles
He
Know
Unsound
" I'm from the Southside of Chicago. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Chicago
" 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
" 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
" One day, I was sitting in a movie theater, and I said, 'What the hell? I can do better than that.' "
Melvin Van Peebles
Better
Sitting
Hell
" 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
" Scars are the price you pay for success. "
Melvin Van Peebles
You
Price
Scars
" 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
" I do what I want to do. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Want
" Don't ask me something if you don't want to know. Because I will tell you. "
Melvin Van Peebles
You
Want
Tell
" If I had to find one characteristic that is most symbolic of me, I think I am tenacious. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Find
Think
Me
" 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
Clever
Enough
Real
" With 'Sweetback,' I just put it together a little bit at a time. I didn't do it on anybody's grant. I did it like any other young executive - by cheating and stealing! "
Melvin Van Peebles
Cheating
Young
Together
" When I was a kid, from 10 years old, I worked every day for my dad, huh? Never played basketball. I never played tennis - never did. We worked so that we could eat. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Kid
Eat
Day
" I used to be the third person in the secret jets we had - they were secret at the time - a jet bomber that flew at immense heights carrying atomic bombs. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Heights
Used
Time
" I didn't even know I had a legacy. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Even
Had
Know
" Our minds are not our friends when they realize we have work to do - they're our enemies. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Realize
Friends
Minds
" I intend to stay dangerous. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Dangerous
Intend
Stay
" 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
" The key to empowerment is no more complicated than what Jesse Jackson said, 'We are somebody.' But the 'We are somebody' I would like to be in the larger sense: not just the urban African-American but homo sapiens in general - We are somebody. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Complicated
Empowerment
Key
" 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
" The studios didn't really take independent films seriously, till 'Sweetback' was such a financial success. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Take
Financial
Seriously
" When I got to Paris, they welcomed me and showed my films. It was August of 1960, and I didn't have a penny in my pocket. But they had done something very dangerous: They had given me encouragement. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Done
Paris
Encouragement
" 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
" Me and modesty don't mix. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Me
Modesty
Mix
" The artistic world is one of high nuance. "
Melvin Van Peebles
High
World
Nuance
" When we talk about 'Sweetback,' yes, it stars the whole black movement, but it's also the first time an independent film made that kind of money and was that successful and taken seriously. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Time
Black
Money
" 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