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" I respect the audience's intelligence a lot, and that's why I don't try to go for the lowest common denominator. "
Spike Lee
Respect
Intelligence
Go
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" If we became students of Malcolm X, we would not have young black men out there killing each other like they're killing each other now. Young black men would not be impregnating young black women at the rate going on now. We'd not have the drugs we have now, or the alcoholism. "
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" I think it is very important that films make people look at what they've forgotten. "
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" My grandmother lived to be 100 years old. Her grandmother was a slave, yet she was a college graduate in the Spellman class of 1917. She taught art for 50 years and she saved her Social Security checks for her children's education. "
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" 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. "
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Women
Black
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" My cousin Malcolm Lee is also a filmmaker. "
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" Making films has got to be one of the hardest endeavors known to humankind. "
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Got
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" I'm blessed, I can afford to send my children to private school. "
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Children
Blessed
Afford
" You have to do the research. If you don't know about something, then you ask the right people who do. "
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Ask
Know
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" I'm very careful about how I portray violence in my films. I do believe that violence, especially violent video games, are not a good thing for young kids. "
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Violence
Believe
Good
" I had a great education. From kindergarten to John Dewey High School in Coney Island, I am public-school educated. "
Spike Lee
I Am
School
Education
" I don't like acting; not in front of the camera. "
Spike Lee
Front
Acting
Camera
" First of all, what in this world does not revolve around money? But money is a big part of film, unlike a lot of other art forms. "
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Big
Art
Film
" 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. "
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Summer
Dream
Know
" 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. "
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Sleep
Think
Rest
" What's the difference between Hollywood characters and my characters? Mine are real. "
Spike Lee
Hollywood
Difference
Real
" People sometimes forget all the films that we've done. They remember the likes of 'Malcolm X' and 'Do the Right Thing.' But I've been working since 1986. From the beginning, I was determined to not just be a flash in the pan. I've got to keep up with Woody Allen. He's lapping me. "
Spike Lee
Beginning
People
Do The Right Thing
" 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. "
Spike Lee
Quest
Down
Here
" There's a lot of Americans, black and white, who think that we've arrived where we need to be and nothing else needs to be done and affirmative action needs to be dismantled. "
Spike Lee
Think
Action
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" Right now a lot of people are still choosing to go to Toronto instead of shooting in New York City, something I haven't done and something I hope I'll never have to do. "
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People
City
Done
" I don't get tripped up in technology. I use technology as a tool. 'Oldboy' we shot Two Pro 35mm. For 'Da Blood of Jesus,' we shot digitally. We shot the new Sony F55. It's a 4K camera. "
Spike Lee
Camera
Up
Two
" I don't dictate, you don't dictate to Stevie Wonder, not successfully. "
Spike Lee
Dictate
Stevie Wonder
Wonder
" 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. "
Spike Lee
You
Perfect
Law
" People of color have a constant frustration of not being represented, or being misrepresented, and these images go around the world. "
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Color
People
World
" I'm riding my man Obama. I think he's a visionary. Actually, Barack told me the first date he took Michelle to was 'Do the Right Thing.' I said, Thank God I made it. Otherwise you would have taken her to 'Soul Man.' Michelle would have been like 'What's wrong with this brother?' "
Spike Lee
Brother
Man
God
" People think I'm this angry black man walking around in a constant state of rage. "
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Man
People
Walking
" 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. "
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Photography
Time
You
" 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. "
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Power
Opportunity
Blessed
" When I went to school, you had to take art, you had to play an instrument. You had to play an instrument. But it's all degraded since then. I do not know what kind of nation we are that is cutting art, music, and gym out of the public-school curriculum. "
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School
You
Music
" A lot of times you get credit for stuff in your movies you didn't intend to be there. "
Spike Lee
You
Credit
Movies
" All directors are storytellers, so the motivation was to tell the story I wanted to tell. That's what I love. "
Spike Lee
Motivation
Love
Wanted