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" 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. "

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" The key to empowerment is no more complicated than what Jesse Jackson said, 'We are somebody.' But the 'We are somebody' I would like to be in the larger sense: not just the urban African-American but homo sapiens in general - We are somebody. "

Melvin Van Peebles

Complicated

Empowerment

Key

" I said to my kids, 'Learn the business of America if you want to be an artist in America. The rest of that stuff, the art part, you could pick up in an hour and a half.' "

" 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

" It wasn't really me who invented rap. I stole the idea from Aristide Bruant. "

" I was getting my Ph.D. in Holland - I speak Dutch - for a number of years before I moved to France because I had one of those offers you couldn't turn down. They offered me to come and do my films. "

Melvin Van Peebles

Down

Speak

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

" In trying to cross over to the mainstream, some people stopped writing what they witnessed. "

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

" 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'm from the Southside of Chicago. "

Melvin Van Peebles

Chicago

" If I was just a creator, I would still be back in the Lincoln annex in the Post Office. "

" Whitey is uptight about offending blacks without really knowing what offends blacks. "

" 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. "

" I'm not a normal director. You can't look at me that way. What's kept me alive is my technical skill at doing other things. "

" Me and modesty don't mix. "

Melvin Van Peebles

Modesty

Mix

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

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

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

" In the morning, I get the paper. I look in the obituary column. If I don't see myself in there, I get up. "

Melvin Van Peebles

Look

See

" 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! "

" Blacks are tired of seeing whites saying, 'I understand you.' You need a black to direct a black film. "

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

Melvin Van Peebles

Some People

Music

" If you look down a barrel of a gun... you don't forget it. "

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

" The artistic world is one of high nuance. "

" 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. "

" You have to not let yourself believe you can't. Do what you can do within the framework of what you have, and don't look outside - look inside. "

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

" 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