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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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" The key to empowerment is no more complicated than what Jesse Jackson said, 'We are somebody.' But the 'We are somebody' I would like to be in the larger sense: not just the urban African-American but homo sapiens in general - We are somebody. "

Melvin Van Peebles

Complicated

Empowerment

Key

" My life and career is defined by the constant pursuit of new forms of culture and self-expression. "

" 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

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" After 'Don't Play Us Cheap,' I got very busy with theater and Wall Street. "

Melvin Van Peebles

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" When we talk about 'Sweetback,' yes, it stars the whole black movement, but it's also the first time an independent film made that kind of money and was that successful and taken seriously. "

" As a navigator, I started studying astronomy because sometimes you're not able to use the equipment, so you'd have to do it the old-fashioned way, figuring out what you were seeing in the sky. "

" You've got to really check on what you're doing: check and recheck it seven other times to be prepared. Sometimes, people get carried away with the artistic-ness of the endeavor and don't quite have their game face on when the time comes. It's always a pretty costly mistake. "

" One day, I was sitting in a movie theater, and I said, 'What the hell? I can do better than that.' "

" 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

Down

Walk

" I do what I want to do. "

Melvin Van Peebles

Want

" 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. "

" When I was in the Air Force, if I walked into a restaurant, in about eight or nine minutes the M.P.'s would show up and drag me out because someone had called saying that someone was impersonating an officer. "

Melvin Van Peebles

Air Force

Restaurant

" Big publishers want you to change this and change that. I'd rather go to a little publisher - who needs the tsuris. "

Melvin Van Peebles

Big

You

" 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! "

" Don't ask me something if you don't want to know. Because I will tell you. "

" I graduated from college when I was 20. To get enough money to finish college, I went into the ROTC, and I was an officer in the Air Force before I could buy a drink. "

" What happened when 'Sweetback' made all that money, the studios were in a very difficult position. They wanted the money, but they didn't the message. This marked the advent of the caricatures which became known as blaxploitation. "

" The artistic world is one of high nuance. "

" It wasn't really me who invented rap. I stole the idea from Aristide Bruant. "

" Blacks had a huge role in settling the West, but you'd never know it from Western movies. "

" 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. "

" I intend to stay dangerous. "

" What some folks find funny, other folks find tragic. "

" Making 'Sweetback' took an exorbitant amount of energy and time. "

" Truth of the matter is, I can't even read or write music. "

" Our minds are not our friends when they realize we have work to do - they're our enemies. "

" 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.' "

" I've never been to film school. I had to leave this country to make a film. All they would let me do in Hollywood was be a messenger. "

" The studios didn't really take independent films seriously, till 'Sweetback' was such a financial success. "

" Before me, music soundtracks were sort of afterthoughts. "

Melvin Van Peebles

Music

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