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" I graduated from college when I was 20. To get enough money to finish college, I went into the ROTC, and I was an officer in the Air Force before I could buy a drink. "

Melvin Van Peebles

College

Enough

Money

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" I didn't even know I had a legacy. "

" Personally, I do movies the way I cook: I put in what I like in case nobody else likes it and I have to eat it for the rest of the week. "

" 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. "

" Making 'Sweetback' took an exorbitant amount of energy and time. "

" There's something on Wall Street called PIG - panic, ignorance, and greed. Those are the big sins. I'm not greedy, I knew I was ignorant, and I didn't panic. "

" Why not have fun, man? If I feel like doing something, I just go ahead and do it. "

" Before me, music soundtracks were sort of afterthoughts. "

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" The artistic world is one of high nuance. "

" Music - some people just don't know that part of me. "

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" There is a downside to affordable technology, and that's mediocrity. I mean, just 'cause you can afford it don't mean you can do it. "

" 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! "

" If I had to find one characteristic that is most symbolic of me, I think I am tenacious. "

Melvin Van Peebles

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Think

" Our minds are not our friends when they realize we have work to do - they're our enemies. "

" After 'Don't Play Us Cheap,' I got very busy with theater and Wall Street. "

Melvin Van Peebles

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Wall

" 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

Restaurant

" The studios didn't really take independent films seriously, till 'Sweetback' was such a financial success. "

" No one - black, white, or any different - walks away from a three-picture deal with a studio. That's every filmmaker's dream. But it wasn't mine. "

" I walk down the street; the garbagemen will shout at me, and we'll talk. That's a pleasure when people feel, 'If he can do it, I can, too.' "

Melvin Van Peebles

Down

Walk

" 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. "

" Big publishers want you to change this and change that. I'd rather go to a little publisher - who needs the tsuris. "

Melvin Van Peebles

Big

You

" I have no illusions about running. I hate running. If I could feel as good as I felt at 30 without running, I wouldn't do it, but that's not the way it works! So - no pain, no gain. "

" You've got to really check on what you're doing: check and recheck it seven other times to be prepared. Sometimes, people get carried away with the artistic-ness of the endeavor and don't quite have their game face on when the time comes. It's always a pretty costly mistake. "

" My first feature, I made in France. There's a great respect for the author there - they don't change your stuff. "

" Somebody once asked me, 'Melvin, how'd you get to the top?' It was simple. Nobody would let me in at the bottom. "

Melvin Van Peebles

You

Bottom

" My life and career is defined by the constant pursuit of new forms of culture and self-expression. "

" I'm pretty much a loner. That's not good, bad, or indifferent. "

" Over time, you accumulate a lot of life material. "

" Me and modesty don't mix. "

Melvin Van Peebles

Modesty

Mix

" What some folks find funny, other folks find tragic. "

" What happened when 'Sweetback' made all that money, the studios were in a very difficult position. They wanted the money, but they didn't the message. This marked the advent of the caricatures which became known as blaxploitation. "