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" 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

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" Blacks had a huge role in settling the West, but you'd never know it from Western movies. "

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" There is a downside to affordable technology, and that's mediocrity. I mean, just 'cause you can afford it don't mean you can do it. "

" One day, I was sitting in a movie theater, and I said, 'What the hell? I can do better than that.' "

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" I went to a number of schools when I was a kid on the south side of Chicago. "

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" As a navigator, I started studying astronomy because sometimes you're not able to use the equipment, so you'd have to do it the old-fashioned way, figuring out what you were seeing in the sky. "

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" 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! "

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