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" It's always kind of gratifying to go back to the place that launched you and show you did good. "
Justin Simien
Place
Good
Always
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" I've been taught through life experience that, like, I'd better open my mouth and quickly define myself in a new space and with new people because, if I don't, I will be defined. "
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Experience
Space
" To surrender your ego, you have to have one first. "
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First
Surrender
You
" America is a different country, and it will forever be a different country after the election of Donald Trump. "
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Donald Trump
Election
America
" For me it's just, I have too many ideas, man. It's a problem, actually. "
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Many
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" You know what, man, that's part and parcel of being a black person in this country: everything's harder. It just is. "
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You
Person
" 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. "
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Trust
" I know it's 'Dear White People,' and you can imprint all kinds of concessions about what the show might be about on the title, but my goal was never to, like, educate white people. My goal was always to create characters that you can relate to and fall in love with. "
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Goal
Love
You
" I took an internship at Focus Features while I was in film school. I was really interested in how specialty movies were marketed and found their audience despite being about topics that were outside of the mainstream. "
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Movies
Audience
School
" Basically, the system works to my disadvantage for no other reason than that I am a person of color, and I am telling stories about people of color. "
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Color
Reason
People
" I want to make movies in every genre. "
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Make
Every
Genre
" One of the things that I love about Robert Altman's movies is that, really, a Robert Altman movie is just a bunch of short films about various people told at the same time. "
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Short
Love
Movies
" That is just the reality of being a marginalized person in this country: you have to deal with the psychological impact of your oppressor - whether that's being a woman dealing with men or gay people dealing with straight people or trans people dealing with everybody else. "
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Reality
Gay
Impact
" I never liked 'Donnie Darko' quite as much as my film school peers. "
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Film
Peers
Never
" I definitely have fun commenting on the real world and interpreting through the 'Dear White People' lens. "
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Have Fun
Fun
World
" Shonda Rhimes has figured it out, of getting multiracial casts on television and appealing to everybody. "
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Television
Everybody
Getting
" 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? "
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Know
Day
Future
" It occurred to me that by naming the film itself 'Dear White People,' I could tap into the burgeoning meme culture as well as make a meta-commentary about the controversies within the film. "
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Culture
Film
White
" 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
" 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. "
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People
White
End
" There was a time when a studio executive would really love something and have no proof at all that it would work and just do it because they believed in it. That's how 'Star Wars' happened. "
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Love
Time
Star
" I loved Lena Dunham's 'Girls.' "
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Loved
" I think I'll always be making movies that intend to say something new. "
Justin Simien
Movies
I Think
New
" In the press, there's this desire for the black audience to be this monolithic thing that always responds to the same stars. That's a really reductive way of looking at the black audience. "
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Audience
Stars
Looking
" As much as I'd love to believe that we are 'post-racial' - an idea that really gained traction after the election of Barack Obama in 2008 - I can never escape the fact that in the world I am perceived as a 'black man' and, in certain parts of the world, as a 'black gay man.' "
Justin Simien
Black
I Am
Election
" The further away you get from being a straight white man, the less freedoms you have to figure out who you are and negotiate what you mean to society. "
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Society
Away
Man
" 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. "
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Black
Struggle
Myself
" You can't get along in society without an identity. "
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Along
Identity
Without
" I think unless we have an honest conversation about race and identity in this country, we're never going to get anywhere. "
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Think
Identity
Get
" Balance, I think, and self-care is something I want people to really take to heart. "
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Want
Balance
Think
" It is a fine line between making fun of the right thing and making fun of the wrong thing. And the language oftentimes is the same. "
Justin Simien
The Right Thing
Language
Fun