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" My life and career is defined by the constant pursuit of new forms of culture and self-expression. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Career
Culture
New
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" 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
" 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
" What some folks find funny, other folks find tragic. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Find
Tragic
Some
" 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
" Why not have fun, man? If I feel like doing something, I just go ahead and do it. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Fun
Man
Ahead
" 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 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
" One day, I was sitting in a movie theater, and I said, 'What the hell? I can do better than that.' "
Melvin Van Peebles
Better
Sitting
Hell
" Me and modesty don't mix. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Me
Modesty
Mix
" 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. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Time
Black
Money
" 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 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. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Heights
Used
Time
" I'm pretty much a loner. That's not good, bad, or indifferent. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Bad
Pretty
Much
" 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
" I intend to stay dangerous. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Dangerous
Intend
Stay
" Whitey is uptight about offending blacks without really knowing what offends blacks. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Blacks
Without
Knowing
" Blacks are tired of seeing whites saying, 'I understand you.' You need a black to direct a black film. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Need
Saying
You
" 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
" 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
" 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
" The studios didn't really take independent films seriously, till 'Sweetback' was such a financial success. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Take
Financial
Seriously
" If you look down a barrel of a gun... you don't forget it. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Gun
You
Look
" 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
" 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
" Before me, music soundtracks were sort of afterthoughts. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Music
Sort
Me
" Music - some people just don't know that part of me. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Some People
Me
Music
" After 'Don't Play Us Cheap,' I got very busy with theater and Wall Street. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Play
Wall
Us
" 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
" In the morning, I get the paper. I look in the obituary column. If I don't see myself in there, I get up. "
Melvin Van Peebles
Look
Up
See
" 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