Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" I'm still pulled over... We were nominated for two Oscars for 'Monster's Ball,' and I almost didn't make the Oscars because I got pulled over in Beverly Hills. "

Lee Daniels

Beverly Hills

Over

Got

Related Quotes:

" I think this last film I finished, 'The Butler,' is the closest I will come to as a work-for-hire. "

" Putting on a movie is like going to war - for me, at least. It's all about time; time is money, and we don't have it. So it's all about getting to know each other intimately quickly. You are with family members that you like or don't like, but you can't leave them because you're stuck with them. "

" To come into my world, I've got some M&Ms and some potato chips, and I'm asking you to move furniture. We're making a movie. We're making it like we're putting on a play. "

" When people don't like the film, I can take a bullet. I don't mind you talking about me, but I'm protective of my actors, because they bared their soul for me. "

Lee Daniels

Talking

People

" When you have a lot of siblings, you always do something to feel special. "

" I started casting. I cast music videos, but I kept getting fired from jobs because I was iconoclastic in my ways of casting. "

" I'm not really vegan. I'm vegan-ish. I have a piece of lamb every now and then. "

" That's the gift 'Precious' has given me. You really think you're telling a story about a fat black girl, and only fat black girls will understand it, and then you realize we're all Precious. "

" I'm not Tyler Perry. I'm not Dino De Laurentis. I think it's a bit much to put one's name in front of the film. It makes me uncomfortable. "

Lee Daniels

Name

Film

" I'm always workin', man. I gotta pay the light bills. "

" My mom knew early on that I was gay, and she knew that I had to get out of the ghetto. "

" I was always intrigued with European cinema, and hated most American cinema. I didn't like the one, two, three - boom! style, with a neat and tidy ending. That was never my scene. "

" My mom had five kids. And she came home after working three jobs, and I'd rub her feet. We'd all rub her feet. We were lucky to get any time with her. "

" I've met Shonda Rhimes a few times, and certainly she's an inspiration for me in television. "

" I had 'Push' and 'The Paperboy' next to my bed for many years. Those are some of the great, great novels. "

" I believe strongly that characters are five-dimensional, and they're complicated, and life is complicated, and people are complicated. "

" Rarely do celebrities and actors speak up for what they believe in. "

Lee Daniels

Speak

Rarely

" I look at my movies; I call my movies 'the kid.' It's like I'm giving birth. I'm in the cocoon, you know? "

" Most times when I do a film, it starts out with one idea and ends up not being what I thought it was going to be. "

Lee Daniels

Out

Thought

" I like to show the grey area in all my characters. "

" I hate white people writing for black people; it's so offensive. So we go out and look specifically for African-American voices. "

" There are servers, and there are people that are served. There's something contradictory about that in a democracy, certainly. "

" I drank from colored water fountains and from the white water fountain just to see what it was like when I was a kid. What shocks me is that these kids today don't realize that this happened in many of our lifetimes. "

Lee Daniels

White

Fountain

" If you really spend time with movies, it's three years of your life from beginning to end. I started out planting the seed with 'Monster's Ball' about independent cinema and raising money and that whole thing as a producer, and then it becomes easier for me. "

Lee Daniels

Money

End

" I didn't have the sensibilities of your ordinary filmmaker, let alone your ordinary African-American filmmaker. My heroes were John Waters, Pedro Almodovar, and actors that were part of that world. "

" Most actors want the audience to like them, and that leads to bad acting. "

" I don't know what gives me more pleasure: watching my story unfold or going in and watching a room full of black people talking for me and writing words for black people. "

Lee Daniels

Black

People

" 'Empire' was a very traumatic experience for me. It was very schizophrenic, and it wasn't what I expected it to be. "

Lee Daniels

Empire

Expected

" It's hard for me to accept love. I wish I could lie to you and tell you that it's easy for me, but it's not. "

" I wanted to make a black 'Dynasty.' "