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

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" 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. "

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

" 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. "

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

" I want to see movies I can walk away from and say, 'Wait, what happened there? Hold up, what did I just see? What?' and then it connects to something that you personally, unequivocally know to be truth. "

" 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. "

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

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

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

" 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'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. "

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

" 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. "

" I always question if somebody else is going to love my films. I think that's what art is about - it's so individual. "

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

" I have a partner, Danny Strong; he's an incredible writer and, really, my backbone. So when we don't see eye to eye, it's painful. "

" 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. "

" My mission is to let black kids know that their dreams can happen. "

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

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" My kids tell me to Instagram, so I do that. I have a few thousand followers. "

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

" I'm always more comfortable and in a good place when I'm with friends because I know they trust me. I'm able to get great performances from people who trust me. "

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

" 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. "

" Some of the most provocative TV that I'm inspired by is in the U.K. You guys take it for granted, but in America, we can't do it. "

" 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. "

" There are servers, and there are people that are served. There's something contradictory about that in a democracy, certainly. "