Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" 'Push' had a story, 'The Paperboy' story you could just throw up in the air and shoot holes through the book because the story wasn't as strong. But I felt the characters were stronger in 'The Paperboy'; they were vivid. "

Related Quotes:

" Most of my friends are dead. I watched friends die in my arms at 5, 6, 8. When I grew up, the rest of my friends died of AIDS. "

Lee Daniels

AIDS

Rest

Friends

" I went to school at Radnor High School. And I went to a liberal arts college in St. Louis, Missouri, called Lindenwood College. "

" My dad was a cop. My mom worked at various jobs - she worked as a homemaker, a bank teller, a bartender. "

" 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

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

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

" Stars make money on real movies. They make big money on real movies. To come into my world, I've got some M&Ms and some potato chips, and I'm asking you to move furniture. "

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

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

" I'm a filmmaker. I'm always searching for the truth in everything I do. I demand it from my writing partner and my crew, actors, and so hopefully, we're making people think. "

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

" I moved on to a nursing agency as a receptionist just to get a job, and ended up managing it, which led to me opening my own - say your mom is sick and needs someone to help her, then you call something like what I had: a home health agency. "

Lee Daniels

Job

Mom

" I didn't have the sensibilities of your ordinary filmmaker, let alone your ordinary African-American filmmaker. My heroes were John Waters, Pedro Almodovar, and actors that were part of that world. "

" When I was young, I went to a church where the lighter-skinned you were, the closer you sat to the altar. "

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

" What attracts me to material are characters that I know - characters that I know people don't know but I know - and bringing them to the screen. Spotlighting voices that have not been heard before on screen. "

Lee Daniels

Before

Been

" I'm not Tyler Perry. I'm not Dino De Laurentis. I think it's a bit much to put one's name in front of the film. It makes me uncomfortable. "

Lee Daniels

Name

Film

" Here's the thing: I think the media underestimates the intelligence of the moviegoer. We need to be fulfilled. People want to sit down and think, and I try to make people think. "

" I don't know - I haven't seen any of my movies after I finish them. I leave the editing room; I don't go back. "

" 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 drank from colored water fountains and from the white water fountain just to see what it was like when I was a kid. What shocks me is that these kids today don't realize that this happened in many of our lifetimes. "

Lee Daniels

White

Fountain

" I'm in a great place because I trust people behind the camera as I go off, and I still go back to my day job and do film. "

" I definitely caught the acting bug, but that lasted for about two seconds when I found my way to L.A. and found that my talents were better suited behind the cameras. "

" I like to show the grey area in all my characters. "

" It's hard for me to accept love. I wish I could lie to you and tell you that it's easy for me, but it's not. "

" My mom knew early on that I was gay, and she knew that I had to get out of the ghetto. "

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

" I've had all types of beautiful girls tell me that they ugly when they look in the mirror, as if it's someone else's reflection they see. "

" I started casting. I cast music videos, but I kept getting fired from jobs because I was iconoclastic in my ways of casting. "