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" Everything I do is always scrutinised. But that's all I'll say about that. "
Spike Lee
Always
Say
Everything
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" I'm riding my man Obama. I think he's a visionary. Actually, Barack told me the first date he took Michelle to was 'Do the Right Thing.' I said, Thank God I made it. Otherwise you would have taken her to 'Soul Man.' Michelle would have been like 'What's wrong with this brother?' "
Spike Lee
Brother
Man
God
" I knew I was never going to play professional sport, but I loved playing and I went to all the games I could afford to. "
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Never
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" 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. "
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Me
Consequences
Choices
" I think that every minority in the United States of America knows everything about the dominant culture. From the time you can think, you are bombarded with images from TV, film, magazines, newspapers. "
Spike Lee
America
Time
Culture
" 'Do the Right Thing' was my first union film. I looked at the rosters, and for the most part, it was white males. Especially the Teamsters. So we had some conversations. "
Spike Lee
Film
Do The Right Thing
Right
" And one thing Hollywood does well is sequels. "
Spike Lee
One Thing
Well
Hollywood
" First of all, what in this world does not revolve around money? But money is a big part of film, unlike a lot of other art forms. "
Spike Lee
Big
Art
Film
" 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. "
Spike Lee
Women
Black
Change
" There's a lot of Americans, black and white, who think that we've arrived where we need to be and nothing else needs to be done and affirmative action needs to be dismantled. "
Spike Lee
Think
Action
Black
" I used the principles of Kickstarter to make 'She's Gotta Have It.' We filmed that in 1985 to 1986. The final cost was $175,000. I didn't have that money. It was friends, grants, donations. We saved our bottles for the nickel deposit. "
Spike Lee
Principles
Friends
She
" I think that anyone who lives in New York, who's lived here, who's spent any time here, knows that it's basically a love-hate relationship, you might say. Even though I still think it's the greatest city in the world and I wouldn't live anywhere else, there're still things about it one doesn't like. The love far outweighs the negative. "
Spike Lee
Relationship
Live
Time
" 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. "
Spike Lee
Beginning
People
Do The Right Thing
" A lot of times, we censor ourselves before the censor even gets there. "
Spike Lee
Even
Before
Censor
" '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. "
Spike Lee
Doing
Do The Right Thing
Know
" I think people who have faults are a lot more interesting than people who are perfect. "
Spike Lee
People
Perfect
Interesting
" Any time you talk about the look of the film, it's not just the director and the director of photography. You have to include the costume designer and the production designer. "
Spike Lee
Photography
Time
You
" The truth is I've been doing Kickstarter before there was Kickstarter; there was no Internet. Social Media was writing letters, making phone calls, beating the bushes. "
Spike Lee
Truth Is
Writing
Truth
" I like to work with the same people when I can, and you want to get people with the same interests that you have, and the same aesthetic. "
Spike Lee
I Can
Get
Work
" I respect the audience's intelligence a lot, and that's why I don't try to go for the lowest common denominator. "
Spike Lee
Respect
Intelligence
Go
" 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. "
Spike Lee
College
She
Education
" 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. "
Spike Lee
School
You
Music
" I don't dictate, you don't dictate to Stevie Wonder, not successfully. "
Spike Lee
Dictate
Stevie Wonder
Wonder
" 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. "
Spike Lee
People
Man
Black
" '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. "
Spike Lee
Night
City
Great
" Right now a lot of people are still choosing to go to Toronto instead of shooting in New York City, something I haven't done and something I hope I'll never have to do. "
Spike Lee
People
City
Done
" 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. "
Spike Lee
Summer
Dream
Know
" If we became students of Malcolm X, we would not have young black men out there killing each other like they're killing each other now. Young black men would not be impregnating young black women at the rate going on now. We'd not have the drugs we have now, or the alcoholism. "
Spike Lee
Now
Men
Black
" You have to do the research. If you don't know about something, then you ask the right people who do. "
Spike Lee
Ask
Know
People
" Making films has got to be one of the hardest endeavors known to humankind. "
Spike Lee
Known
Got
Endeavors
" I'm just trying to tell a good story and make thought-provoking, entertaining films. I just try and draw upon the great culture we have as a people, from music, novels, the streets. "
Spike Lee
Great
Good
Culture