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" I had a great education. From kindergarten to John Dewey High School in Coney Island, I am public-school educated. "

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" Since the days of slavery, if you were a good singer or dancer, it was your job to perform for the master after dinner. "

" 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. "

" I've been blessed with the opportunity to express the views of black people who otherwise don't have access to power and the media. I have to take advantage of that while I'm still bankable. "

" Don't think that because you haven't heard from me for a while that I went to sleep. I am still here, like a spirit roaming the night. Thirsty, hungry, seldom stopping to rest. "

" A lot of times you get credit for stuff in your movies you didn't intend to be there. "

" I think people who have faults are a lot more interesting than people who are perfect. "

" I am a hybrid. I do independent films and also do Hollywood films - I love them both. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" You have to do the research. If you don't know about something, then you ask the right people who do. "

" I'd like to state that Spike Lee is not saying that African American culture is just for black people alone to enjoy and cherish. Culture is for everybody. "

" 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. "

" We grew up in a very creative environment and were exposed to the arts at a very young age, so it's not a surprise that all of us are in some form of the arts. "

" I don't think I'm a total pessimist, so I think you can find hope in all my films. "

" 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. "

" '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. "

Do The Right Thing

" I respect the audience's intelligence a lot, and that's why I don't try to go for the lowest common denominator. "

" 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. "

" Mike Tyson is the most complex person I've ever met in my life. I've known Mike since 1986. We're both from Brooklyn. I didn't know him growing up, but once he became heavyweight champion, I knew him then. "

" It comes down to this: black people were stripped of our identities when we were brought here, and it's been a quest since then to define who we are. "

" There's an unwritten law that you cannot have a Jewish character in a film who isn't 100 percent perfect, or you're labeled anti-Semitic. "

" It has been my observation that parents kill more dreams than anybody. "

" Fight the power that be. Fight the power. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I always give the example, if you turn on the radio today, black radio, Lenny Kravitz is not black. Bob Marley wasn't black: in the beginning, only white college stations played Bob Marley. "

" A lot of times, we censor ourselves before the censor even gets there. "

" I get offered to do stuff where the money's nice but it's not something I want to do - I get offered a lot of commercials too. "

" And one thing Hollywood does well is sequels. "