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" 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
Me
Down
Walk
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" I used to be the third person in the secret jets we had - they were secret at the time - a jet bomber that flew at immense heights carrying atomic bombs. "
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" When I got to Paris, they welcomed me and showed my films. It was August of 1960, and I didn't have a penny in my pocket. But they had done something very dangerous: They had given me encouragement. "
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" I'm too short to play basketball and too nervous to steal. "
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" If you give people something they want, they'll come and see it. "
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" I work from a subjective palette. "
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" If you look down a barrel of a gun... you don't forget it. "
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" I'm pretty much a loner. That's not good, bad, or indifferent. "
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" In the morning, I get the paper. I look in the obituary column. If I don't see myself in there, I get up. "
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" A bumblebee can't fly. He's aerodynamically unsound. But he doesn't know that. "
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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. "
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" 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. "
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" Music - some people just don't know that part of me. "
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" Making 'Sweetback' took an exorbitant amount of energy and time. "
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" I went to a number of schools when I was a kid on the south side of Chicago. "
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Chicago
Side
" 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. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Pain
Hate
Good
" Over time, you accumulate a lot of life material. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Lot
Material
Time
" 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
Me
Bottom
" If I had to find one characteristic that is most symbolic of me, I think I am tenacious. "
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Think
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" Whitey is uptight about offending blacks without really knowing what offends blacks. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Blacks
Without
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" Truth of the matter is, I can't even read or write music. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Write
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" When I was a kid, from 10 years old, I worked every day for my dad, huh? Never played basketball. I never played tennis - never did. We worked so that we could eat. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Kid
Eat
Day
" 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! "
Melvin Van Peebles
Cheating
Young
Together
" Scars are the price you pay for success. "
Melvin Van Peebles
You
Price
Scars
" 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.' "
Melvin Van Peebles
You
Art
America
" 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. "
Melvin Van Peebles
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" The graphic novel is a great form that can be used to marry the book format with the movie. "
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Used
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" 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. "
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Alive
Doing
" Why not have fun, man? If I feel like doing something, I just go ahead and do it. "
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" In trying to cross over to the mainstream, some people stopped writing what they witnessed. "
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Some People
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" Before I made 'Sweetback,' I had a three-picture deal with Columbia and enough juice, if I was real clever with it, to proclaim that I wanted to do an independent film. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Clever
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