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" Putting on a movie is like going to war - for me, at least. It's all about time; time is money, and we don't have it. So it's all about getting to know each other intimately quickly. You are with family members that you like or don't like, but you can't leave them because you're stuck with them. "

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" I've never done a studio movie, let alone worked for a network. Every one of my films has been independently financed. "

Lee Daniels

Never

Movie

Network

" I don't read the reviews, the blogs, or anything else. Instead, I feel the audience when I show the film. "

" 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

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

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

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

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

" I think that, as African-Americans, oftentimes we have to put ourselves on pedestals as opposed to really looking at ourselves and trying to understand ourselves and become better people. We always have to be on pedestals. "

" I came to Hollywood to write and found out I don't have the attention span. "

" 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. "

" 'Empire' was a very traumatic experience for me. It was very schizophrenic, and it wasn't what I expected it to be. "

Lee Daniels

Empire

Expected

" While I am not a musician, I love music. I have over 15,000 songs on my iPod. Everything from hard core rap to the soundtrack from the original 'Cinderella.' "

" My mom had five kids. And she came home after working three jobs, and I'd rub her feet. We'd all rub her feet. We were lucky to get any time with her. "

" 'Precious' is so not P.C. What I learned from doing the film is that even though I am black, I'm prejudiced. I'm prejudiced against people who are darker than me. "

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

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

" I want to go to places that are unexpected of me because people really think they have me pegged. "

" 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. "

" The ratings board is completely different when it comes to film versus the television arena. "

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

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

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

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

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

" Every African-American I know has two faces. There's the face that we have for ourselves and the face we put on for white America for the places we have to get to. "

" I love actors, and I'm very protective of them. I trust them. It's a mutual trust. "

" I look at my movies; I call my movies 'the kid.' It's like I'm giving birth. I'm in the cocoon, you know? "

" 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. "