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" I don't profess to be Shonda Rhimes by any stretch of the imagination, or Dick Wolf. They're icons. I'm a filmmaker. "
Lee Daniels
Imagination
Stretch
Any
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" I definitely caught the acting bug, but that lasted for about two seconds when I found my way to L.A. and found that my talents were better suited behind the cameras. "
Lee Daniels
Bug
Talents
Two
" My partner, Danny Strong, came to me with this idea of telling a story about my life and merging that with music and the hip-hop world. He wrote 'The Butler' and originally wanted to do 'Empire' also as a movie. "
Lee Daniels
My Life
Music
Me
" I'm in a great place because I trust people behind the camera as I go off, and I still go back to my day job and do film. "
Lee Daniels
Camera
People
Trust
" I have a partner, Danny Strong; he's an incredible writer and, really, my backbone. So when we don't see eye to eye, it's painful. "
Lee Daniels
Eye
Strong
Partner
" I look at my movies; I call my movies 'the kid.' It's like I'm giving birth. I'm in the cocoon, you know? "
Lee Daniels
Birth
Know
Giving
" I'm always more comfortable and in a good place when I'm with friends because I know they trust me. I'm able to get great performances from people who trust me. "
Lee Daniels
Good
Me
People
" My earliest experience was reading Edward Albee's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' at 8, you know, with a bunch of kids on my steps - on the stoops - and knowing that I wanted to direct them saying the lines. I don't really know how to articulate that 'cause there wasn't someone to show me. "
Lee Daniels
Me
Reading
Experience
" I don't know what gives me more pleasure: watching my story unfold or going in and watching a room full of black people talking for me and writing words for black people. "
Lee Daniels
Black
Me
People
" I didn't have the sensibilities of your ordinary filmmaker, let alone your ordinary African-American filmmaker. My heroes were John Waters, Pedro Almodovar, and actors that were part of that world. "
Lee Daniels
World
African-American
Alone
" Putting on a movie is like going to war - for me, at least. It's all about time; time is money, and we don't have it. So it's all about getting to know each other intimately quickly. You are with family members that you like or don't like, but you can't leave them because you're stuck with them. "
Lee Daniels
Know
War
Time
" I've met Shonda Rhimes a few times, and certainly she's an inspiration for me in television. "
Lee Daniels
She
Few
Inspiration
" I had 'Push' and 'The Paperboy' next to my bed for many years. Those are some of the great, great novels. "
Lee Daniels
Years
Bed
Great
" I want to see movies I can walk away from and say, 'Wait, what happened there? Hold up, what did I just see? What?' and then it connects to something that you personally, unequivocally know to be truth. "
Lee Daniels
Wait
You
Truth
" As a film director and as film actors, you get used to a certain rhythm that's slow. But with TV, it's hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. It's a different pace. "
Lee Daniels
You
Slow
Rhythm
" Some of my friends don't have a cell phone. Patti LaBelle doesn't have a cell phone. "
Lee Daniels
Some
Cell
Cell Phone
" My work is therapeutic: 'Monster's Ball,' 'Woodsman' and 'Shadowboxer,' because I don't go to therapy, and I sort of live life through my films. "
Lee Daniels
Life
Work
Live
" When you have a lot of siblings, you always do something to feel special. "
Lee Daniels
Always
You
Special
" I have twins that I didn't want to have the life that I had. I didn't have a great life growing up. "
Lee Daniels
Life
Growing Up
Growing
" I went from off-off Broadway. I would direct plays in Baldwin Hills. Almost Tyler Perry-like, really trying to express myself in that and not really knowing how to, knowing acting in story, but not really knowing how to technically hold a camera. "
Lee Daniels
Story
Trying
Myself
" I'm always workin', man. I gotta pay the light bills. "
Lee Daniels
Man
Always
Bills
" I don't know - I haven't seen any of my movies after I finish them. I leave the editing room; I don't go back. "
Lee Daniels
Finish
Movies
Know
" I think the father-son love story is a universal one which transcends color. "
Lee Daniels
Color
Story
Think
" I have a very clear vision, and I come from film, where director is God, so if there's a clash, it's painful. "
Lee Daniels
Director
Painful
Film
" It's hard for me to accept love. I wish I could lie to you and tell you that it's easy for me, but it's not. "
Lee Daniels
Wish
You
Easy
" I am so used to having two faces. A face that I had for black America and a face for white America. When Obama became president, I lost both faces. Now I only have one face. "
Lee Daniels
Lost
Face
Black
" I don't work with fear, and I don't work with actors that are fearful. "
Lee Daniels
Work
Fear
Fearful
" I believe in life that you know that everything prepares you for the next thing - whether it's a hit, whether it's not a hit, whether it's a... your failures are your accomplishments because it makes you prepared for whatever it is that you are going to do next. "
Lee Daniels
Believe
I Believe
Know
" I'm not going to be labeled a black filmmaker. I am not here to just tell black stories. I'm here to tell all kinds of stories, musicals and dramas. "
Lee Daniels
Tell
I Am
Black
" Most times when I do a film, it starts out with one idea and ends up not being what I thought it was going to be. "
Lee Daniels
Out
Up
Thought
" I hate white people writing for black people; it's so offensive. So we go out and look specifically for African-American voices. "
Lee Daniels
Look
People
Black