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" 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
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" I don't dictate, you don't dictate to Stevie Wonder, not successfully. "
Spike Lee
Dictate
Stevie Wonder
Wonder
" I think that anyone who lives in New York, who's lived here, who's spent any time here, knows that it's basically a love-hate relationship, you might say. Even though I still think it's the greatest city in the world and I wouldn't live anywhere else, there're still things about it one doesn't like. The love far outweighs the negative. "
Spike Lee
Relationship
Live
Time
" I think it is very important that films make people look at what they've forgotten. "
Spike Lee
Look
Important
I Think
" 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. "
Spike Lee
People
City
Done
" I get offered to do stuff where the money's nice but it's not something I want to do - I get offered a lot of commercials too. "
Spike Lee
Money
Get
Something
" 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. "
Spike Lee
Photography
Time
You
" I think people who have faults are a lot more interesting than people who are perfect. "
Spike Lee
People
Perfect
Interesting
" Amongst black people, you have always heard it said that once a black man reaches a certain level, especially if you are an entertainer, you get a white trophy woman. I didn't make that up. "
Spike Lee
People
Man
Black
" 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. "
Spike Lee
Summer
Dream
Know
" 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. "
Spike Lee
Power
Opportunity
Blessed
" I am very fortunate I can send my kids to private school, but everybody does not have the money. If you cannot get your kid in a good school today, your kids are going to be behind the eight ball. "
Spike Lee
Today
Good
I Am
" I don't like acting; not in front of the camera. "
Spike Lee
Front
Acting
Camera
" You have to do the research. If you don't know about something, then you ask the right people who do. "
Spike Lee
Ask
Know
People
" Everything I do is always scrutinised. But that's all I'll say about that. "
Spike Lee
Always
Say
Everything
" I think that every minority in the United States of America knows everything about the dominant culture. From the time you can think, you are bombarded with images from TV, film, magazines, newspapers. "
Spike Lee
America
Time
Culture
" 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
" I think the best actors in the world are here in New York City. And this city is just so vibrant the energy is just phenomenal. Great crews here. All the technicians, all the artists that work in this industry. I've just been very happy with the body that we've been able to do, especially those films we shot here in New York City. "
Spike Lee
Work
Best
City
" Since the days of slavery, if you were a good singer or dancer, it was your job to perform for the master after dinner. "
Spike Lee
Dinner
You
Job
" 'She's Gotta Have It' and 'School Daze,' I really didn't know what I was doing. And the biggest indicator of that was the acting. 'Do the Right Thing' was like the first film where I really felt comfortable working with actors. "
Spike Lee
Doing
Do The Right Thing
Know
" 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. "
Spike Lee
College
She
Education
" Making films has got to be one of the hardest endeavors known to humankind. "
Spike Lee
Known
Got
Endeavors
" 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. "
Spike Lee
School
You
Music
" I knew I was never going to play professional sport, but I loved playing and I went to all the games I could afford to. "
Spike Lee
Professional
Never
Loved
" A lot of times, we censor ourselves before the censor even gets there. "
Spike Lee
Even
Before
Censor
" I'd like to state that Spike Lee is not saying that African American culture is just for black people alone to enjoy and cherish. Culture is for everybody. "
Spike Lee
Culture
Alone
Black
" I used the principles of Kickstarter to make 'She's Gotta Have It.' We filmed that in 1985 to 1986. The final cost was $175,000. I didn't have that money. It was friends, grants, donations. We saved our bottles for the nickel deposit. "
Spike Lee
Principles
Friends
She
" 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 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
" 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. "
Spike Lee
Sleep
Think
Rest
" 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. "
Spike Lee
Now
Men
Black