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" I don't read the reviews, the blogs, or anything else. Instead, I feel the audience when I show the film. "
Lee Daniels
Feel
Audience
Film
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" I think that, as African-Americans, oftentimes we have to put ourselves on pedestals as opposed to really looking at ourselves and trying to understand ourselves and become better people. We always have to be on pedestals. "
Lee Daniels
Think
Better
Looking
" I'm still pulled over... We were nominated for two Oscars for 'Monster's Ball,' and I almost didn't make the Oscars because I got pulled over in Beverly Hills. "
Lee Daniels
Beverly Hills
Over
Got
" Here's the thing: I think the media underestimates the intelligence of the moviegoer. We need to be fulfilled. People want to sit down and think, and I try to make people think. "
Lee Daniels
Need
Media
Think
" I was the oldest of five children, each about a year apart, and my mother, bless her heart, had her hands full. "
Lee Daniels
Hands
Mother
Heart
" 'Push' had a story, 'The Paperboy' story you could just throw up in the air and shoot holes through the book because the story wasn't as strong. But I felt the characters were stronger in 'The Paperboy'; they were vivid. "
Lee Daniels
Stronger
Strong
Book
" I thought I could write. So it was my intention to start off as a writer. But I wasn't really great at delivering the word at the end of the day. "
Lee Daniels
Great
Write
Day
" In L.A., I was a talent manager for many years. I represented many African-American actors. After a while, I became disheartened over the shortage of roles for African Americans. "
Lee Daniels
Many
Talent
Years
" I believe strongly that characters are five-dimensional, and they're complicated, and life is complicated, and people are complicated. "
Lee Daniels
Life
People
I Believe
" If you really spend time with movies, it's three years of your life from beginning to end. I started out planting the seed with 'Monster's Ball' about independent cinema and raising money and that whole thing as a producer, and then it becomes easier for me. "
Lee Daniels
Money
Me
End
" 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 worked at Warner Bros. for a while. I was the head of the minority talent casting. It was like pre-Spike Lee and post-blaxploitation era. "
Lee Daniels
Casting
Talent
Minority
" There are servers, and there are people that are served. There's something contradictory about that in a democracy, certainly. "
Lee Daniels
About
Something
People
" 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've had all types of beautiful girls tell me that they ugly when they look in the mirror, as if it's someone else's reflection they see. "
Lee Daniels
Mirror
Ugly
Reflection
" I knew that I'd end up directing because I'm so hands-on with my films. "
Lee Daniels
Hands-On
Up
Because
" I like to show the grey area in all my characters. "
Lee Daniels
Grey
Characters
Show
" I've met Shonda Rhimes a few times, and certainly she's an inspiration for me in television. "
Lee Daniels
She
Few
Inspiration
" 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'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
" I don't know whether everybody likes the films that I do. I know that I love them, and I believe the way that I raise my kids that they will love them, and that's what most important to me. "
Lee Daniels
Me
Love
Believe
" I had trained myself not to go to the bathroom throughout my elementary and junior high school years because I was bullied. And you don't understand why you're being bullied, so you just suppress it. "
Lee Daniels
You
Myself
School
" 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
" Rarely do celebrities and actors speak up for what they believe in. "
Lee Daniels
Up
Speak
Rarely
" My mom knew early on that I was gay, and she knew that I had to get out of the ghetto. "
Lee Daniels
Gay
Early
Out
" 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
" I love actors, and I'm very protective of them. I trust them. It's a mutual trust. "
Lee Daniels
Mutual
Protective
Them
" When you have a lot of siblings, you always do something to feel special. "
Lee Daniels
Always
You
Special
" Every African-American I know has two faces. There's the face that we have for ourselves and the face we put on for white America for the places we have to get to. "
Lee Daniels
Places
Two
White
" To come into my world, I've got some M&Ms and some potato chips, and I'm asking you to move furniture. We're making a movie. We're making it like we're putting on a play. "
Lee Daniels
Furniture
You
World
" 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