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" My partner, Danny Strong, came to me with this idea of telling a story about my life and merging that with music and the hip-hop world. He wrote 'The Butler' and originally wanted to do 'Empire' also as a movie. "

Lee Daniels

My Life

Music

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" I come from a family of servants. My father's father was a servant, and my father's father's father was a slave. "

" I want to learn. I want to stretch my muscles as a director and work under different circumstances. "

" I don't profess to be Shonda Rhimes by any stretch of the imagination, or Dick Wolf. They're icons. I'm a filmmaker. "

" I'm still pulled over... We were nominated for two Oscars for 'Monster's Ball,' and I almost didn't make the Oscars because I got pulled over in Beverly Hills. "

" My work is therapeutic: 'Monster's Ball,' 'Woodsman' and 'Shadowboxer,' because I don't go to therapy, and I sort of live life through my films. "

" Some of my friends don't have a cell phone. Patti LaBelle doesn't have a cell phone. "

" I think the father-son love story is a universal one which transcends color. "

" I want to live in my truth. Tell me you don't like me, and I know it. But when you don't tell me, and you work behind my back, it's a lie, and I don't know how to fight that. "

Lee Daniels

Fight

Lie

" I don't work with fear, and I don't work with actors that are fearful. "

" The rules are: The only ego is the film, and you have to serve the film. "

" Rarely do celebrities and actors speak up for what they believe in. "

Lee Daniels

Speak

Rarely

" When people don't like the film, I can take a bullet. I don't mind you talking about me, but I'm protective of my actors, because they bared their soul for me. "

Lee Daniels

Talking

People

" I had 'Push' and 'The Paperboy' next to my bed for many years. Those are some of the great, great novels. "

" I believe strongly that characters are five-dimensional, and they're complicated, and life is complicated, and people are complicated. "

" I went from off-off Broadway. I would direct plays in Baldwin Hills. Almost Tyler Perry-like, really trying to express myself in that and not really knowing how to, knowing acting in story, but not really knowing how to technically hold a camera. "

" If you really spend time with movies, it's three years of your life from beginning to end. I started out planting the seed with 'Monster's Ball' about independent cinema and raising money and that whole thing as a producer, and then it becomes easier for me. "

Lee Daniels

Money

End

" I was always intrigued with European cinema, and hated most American cinema. I didn't like the one, two, three - boom! style, with a neat and tidy ending. That was never my scene. "

" I come from a family of domestics. I think most African-Americans of my age do. They were trusted by their bosses. I have met so many white people that spent more time with their nannies than they have with their own parents. "

" I've met Shonda Rhimes a few times, and certainly she's an inspiration for me in television. "

" I have a very clear vision, and I come from film, where director is God, so if there's a clash, it's painful. "

" I think this last film I finished, 'The Butler,' is the closest I will come to as a work-for-hire. "

" I worked at Warner Bros. for a while. I was the head of the minority talent casting. It was like pre-Spike Lee and post-blaxploitation era. "

" I went back-to-back from 'Paperboy' to 'Butler,' literally with no break. "

" I was the oldest of five children, each about a year apart, and my mother, bless her heart, had her hands full. "

" I was always in trouble. I was mischievous. And movies were always a part of my world. "

" I'm not really vegan. I'm vegan-ish. I have a piece of lamb every now and then. "

" When you have a lot of siblings, you always do something to feel special. "

" I don't want to sell my soul to Hollywood - to just make run-of-the-mill stuff. "

" I thought I could write. So it was my intention to start off as a writer. But I wasn't really great at delivering the word at the end of the day. "

" I'm always workin', man. I gotta pay the light bills. "