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" Music - some people just don't know that part of me. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Some People
Me
Music
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" Scars are the price you pay for success. "
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" 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. "
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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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" It wasn't really me who invented rap. I stole the idea from Aristide Bruant. "
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Invented
Idea
Rap
" 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
" A bumblebee can't fly. He's aerodynamically unsound. But he doesn't know that. "
Melvin Van Peebles
He
Know
Unsound
" 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. "
Melvin Van Peebles
School
Country
Film
" Our minds are not our friends when they realize we have work to do - they're our enemies. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Realize
Friends
Minds
" 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. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Face
You
Time
" 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
Go
You
" 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. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Difficult
Position
Money
" My life and career is defined by the constant pursuit of new forms of culture and self-expression. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Career
Culture
New
" 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
" There's something on Wall Street called PIG - panic, ignorance, and greed. Those are the big sins. I'm not greedy, I knew I was ignorant, and I didn't panic. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Ignorant
Greed
Pig
" My first feature, I made in France. There's a great respect for the author there - they don't change your stuff. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Respect
Change
France
" Truth of the matter is, I can't even read or write music. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Write
Matter
Truth
" I intend to stay dangerous. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Dangerous
Intend
Stay
" I was getting my Ph.D. in Holland - I speak Dutch - for a number of years before I moved to France because I had one of those offers you couldn't turn down. They offered me to come and do my films. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Me
Down
Speak
" If you give people something they want, they'll come and see it. "
Melvin Van Peebles
You
Come
Want
" Me and modesty don't mix. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Me
Modesty
Mix
" If I was just a creator, I would still be back in the Lincoln annex in the Post Office. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Office
Back
Creator
" 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. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Seeing
Sky
Sometimes
" Over time, you accumulate a lot of life material. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Lot
Material
Time
" 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
" 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. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Mean
You Can Do It
Technology
" 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. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Say
Movies
Think
" After 'Don't Play Us Cheap,' I got very busy with theater and Wall Street. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Play
Wall
Us
" 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
" I do what I want to do. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Want
" In trying to cross over to the mainstream, some people stopped writing what they witnessed. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Some People
Writing
People