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" I think I'll always be making movies that intend to say something new. "
Justin Simien
Movies
I Think
New
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" If you examine any aspect of the human condition long enough, you really do have to start laughing at it. Because the business of being human is kind of ridiculous. "
Justin Simien
You
Kind
Enough
" Stories teach us empathy. They reveal to us ourselves in the skins of others. "
Justin Simien
Others
Teach
Empathy
" There is a difference between being offended and being prejudiced and even being bigoted against. There's a difference between that and racism. "
Justin Simien
Against
Offended
Racism
" Balance, I think, and self-care is something I want people to really take to heart. "
Justin Simien
Want
Balance
Think
" I wanted to be a filmmaker since I was a kid. I always did things that took me a little closer to that. "
Justin Simien
Things
Wanted
Me
" 'Blue is the Warmest Colour' - I'm not a lesbian, I'm not French, I'm not a woman, but I saw so much of myself in those women and in those characters. I saw different parts of myself than I ever would've seen if I hadn't seen that film. "
Justin Simien
Myself
Film
Women
" You know what, man, that's part and parcel of being a black person in this country: everything's harder. It just is. "
Justin Simien
Black
You
Person
" Everyone at a performing arts schools is weird. The weirder you were, the better. If you weren't weird in some way, they'd look at you and be like, 'Who's that square?' "
Justin Simien
Way
Arts
You
" I saw 'Beauty and the Beast' at eight years old in theatres and spent hours trying to recreate the majestic imagery of that story in a drawing notepad at home. "
Justin Simien
Story
Beauty
Drawing
" There is no monolithic black culture. It's completely different for someone born in Harlem to someone born in Houston or London with one exception, which is that people contributing to black culture have the experience of being black. "
Justin Simien
Born
People
Experience
" Everybody else was quoting 2Pac, and I was running around with Green Day in my Walkman. Racially speaking, I wasn't cool or appropriate for any group. "
Justin Simien
Running
Group
Green
" I want the Latino 'Do the Right Thing' to happen. I want filmmakers whose voices are not represented to get a shot. "
Justin Simien
Right
Latino
Want
" I think I have a threshold for taking things too seriously. "
Justin Simien
Too
I Think
Seriously
" To surrender your ego, you have to have one first. "
Justin Simien
First
Surrender
You
" I think art is much more valuable when it's honest. If it's not honest, it's just propaganda. "
Justin Simien
Honest
Art
More
" Racism is over in the 'Star Trek' future, but they found a way to comment on sexism and racism in the present day in such a subversive and smart way, you know? "
Justin Simien
Know
Day
Future
" Usually, with 'Star Trek,' you always trust the captain. The captains are always going to pull us through; the captain's always going to win. "
Justin Simien
Captain
Win
Trust
" Daring to make films of any kind and thus invite the possibility of ridicule was an internal battle of mine for many years as I worked on the screenplay for what would become 'Dear White People' beginning at the end of George W. Bush's second term. "
Justin Simien
People
White
End
" 'Color-blind' comes up - people say 'Oh, I'm color-blind and therefore can't be accused of racism,' but I think that if we are going to have an honest dialogue about racism, we have to admit that people of color are having a different experience. "
Justin Simien
Experience
Color
Think
" I never liked 'Donnie Darko' quite as much as my film school peers. "
Justin Simien
Film
Peers
Never
" Any time a black person has the audacity to tell everybody else that they're also human beings, they are confronted with all kinds of malice and violence and ill will. It's been that way since black people were brought to this country. "
Justin Simien
Country
Black
Time
" The mark of a really great satire is its ability to seem prophetic, and I think that the television culture that film predicted really came true in the age of reality television and is a testament to how great it really is. "
Justin Simien
Reality
Think
Age
" You watch 'Malcolm X,' and then Netflix recommends 'B.A.P.S.,' and you're like, 'What? Those movies have absolutely nothing to do with each other, but OK.' They don't recommend other historical biopics - it's 'B.A.P.S.' and 'Ghost Dad.' "
Justin Simien
Like
You
Watch
" I'm not a big fan of shooting something that looks like it could belong in any movie. I'm not a fan of, okay, 'wide shot, wide shot, medium shot, close-up, close-up - we'll figure it out in post.' I hate that. "
Justin Simien
Okay
Big
Hate
" Satire and comedy are really the only film mediums where you can get into ideas and have people leave the theater without being moralized. "
Justin Simien
Ideas
Comedy
You
" Part of my struggle with being gay was that a lot of my homophobia was internalized because of the cues that I was - received. I didn't see anybody like myself in the culture. RuPaul was the closest to a gay, out black man that I had growing up. "
Justin Simien
Black
Struggle
Myself
" Everyone is very aware that, not only do we have a race problem, but it's so pervasive that it affects national and global politics on a scale that I don't think a lot of people imagined. "
Justin Simien
Race
Think
Politics
" I don't doubt that straight white men have identity issues and identity complexes and struggle with defining themselves. "
Justin Simien
Identity
White
Men
" I never quite lived up to the image of the black man as I saw it growing up. I was never listening to the right music at the right time or wearing the right clothes at the right time. I was still listening to Michael Jackson, and everyone had sort of moved on to gangster rap. Alanis Morissette when everyone else was listening to En Vogue. "
Justin Simien
Growing Up
Music
Man
" The Black Lives Matter movement has spawned all kinds of activism. "
Justin Simien
Activism
Movement
Matter