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" 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
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" Before I made 'Sweetback,' I had a three-picture deal with Columbia and enough juice, if I was real clever with it, to proclaim that I wanted to do an independent film. "
Melvin Van Peebles
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Enough
Real
" I used to be the third person in the secret jets we had - they were secret at the time - a jet bomber that flew at immense heights carrying atomic bombs. "
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Heights
Used
Time
" In trying to cross over to the mainstream, some people stopped writing what they witnessed. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Some People
Writing
People
" 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
" Personally, I do movies the way I cook: I put in what I like in case nobody else likes it and I have to eat it for the rest of the week. "
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Way
Nobody
Eat
" Whitey is uptight about offending blacks without really knowing what offends blacks. "
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Blacks
Without
Knowing
" It wasn't really me who invented rap. I stole the idea from Aristide Bruant. "
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Invented
Idea
Rap
" No one - black, white, or any different - walks away from a three-picture deal with a studio. That's every filmmaker's dream. But it wasn't mine. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Black
Different
Dream
" 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
" 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
" I'm from the Southside of Chicago. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Chicago
" A bumblebee can't fly. He's aerodynamically unsound. But he doesn't know that. "
Melvin Van Peebles
He
Know
Unsound
" 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
" Music - some people just don't know that part of me. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Some People
Me
Music
" The studios didn't really take independent films seriously, till 'Sweetback' was such a financial success. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Take
Financial
Seriously
" 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
" 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. "
Melvin Van Peebles
College
Enough
Money
" 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
" You have to not let yourself believe you can't. Do what you can do within the framework of what you have, and don't look outside - look inside. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Believe
Inside
Look
" 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
" 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. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Pain
Hate
Good
" 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. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Done
Paris
Encouragement
" 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
" After 'Don't Play Us Cheap,' I got very busy with theater and Wall Street. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Play
Wall
Us
" What some folks find funny, other folks find tragic. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Find
Tragic
Some
" Blacks had a huge role in settling the West, but you'd never know it from Western movies. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Never
Know
Movies
" Why not have fun, man? If I feel like doing something, I just go ahead and do it. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Fun
Man
Ahead
" 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
" The graphic novel is a great form that can be used to marry the book format with the movie. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Used
Movie
Book
" Me and modesty don't mix. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Me
Modesty
Mix