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" When I went to school, you had to take art, you had to play an instrument. You had to play an instrument. But it's all degraded since then. I do not know what kind of nation we are that is cutting art, music, and gym out of the public-school curriculum. "

Spike Lee

School

You

Music

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" I respect the audience's intelligence a lot, and that's why I don't try to go for the lowest common denominator. "

Spike Lee

Respect

Intelligence

" I don't think I'm a total pessimist, so I think you can find hope in all my films. "

" I tend to favour films that have multiple plot and story lines, multiple characters and ensemble pieces. "

" Don't think that because you haven't heard from me for a while that I went to sleep. I am still here, like a spirit roaming the night. Thirsty, hungry, seldom stopping to rest. "

" For me, I believe in God, God is real. "

" People think I'm this angry black man walking around in a constant state of rage. "

" I'm just trying to tell a good story and make thought-provoking, entertaining films. I just try and draw upon the great culture we have as a people, from music, novels, the streets. "

" Violence is a part of America. I don't want to single out rap music. Let's be honest. America's the most violent country in the history of the world, that's just the way it is. We're all affected by it. "

" I think it would be very boring dramatically to have a film where everybody was a lawyer or doctor and had no faults. To me, the most important thing is to be truthful. "

Spike Lee

Movies

Doctor

" I get offered to do stuff where the money's nice but it's not something I want to do - I get offered a lot of commercials too. "

" Everything I do is always scrutinised. But that's all I'll say about that. "

" A spine to my films that's become more evident to me is that many are about the choices people make, and the reverberations of those choices. You go this way, or that way, and either way, there's going to be consequences. "

Spike Lee

Consequences

Choices

" I've been blessed with the opportunity to express the views of black people who otherwise don't have access to power and the media. I have to take advantage of that while I'm still bankable. "

" It has been my observation that parents kill more dreams than anybody. "

" I don't dictate, you don't dictate to Stevie Wonder, not successfully. "

" I had a great education. From kindergarten to John Dewey High School in Coney Island, I am public-school educated. "

" My grandmother lived to be 100 years old. Her grandmother was a slave, yet she was a college graduate in the Spellman class of 1917. She taught art for 50 years and she saved her Social Security checks for her children's education. "

" People sometimes forget all the films that we've done. They remember the likes of 'Malcolm X' and 'Do the Right Thing.' But I've been working since 1986. From the beginning, I was determined to not just be a flash in the pan. I've got to keep up with Woody Allen. He's lapping me. "

" I like to work with the same people when I can, and you want to get people with the same interests that you have, and the same aesthetic. "

" What's the difference between Hollywood characters and my characters? Mine are real. "

" Mike Tyson is the most complex person I've ever met in my life. I've known Mike since 1986. We're both from Brooklyn. I didn't know him growing up, but once he became heavyweight champion, I knew him then. "

" My cousin Malcolm Lee is also a filmmaker. "

" Any time you talk about the look of the film, it's not just the director and the director of photography. You have to include the costume designer and the production designer. "

" The truth is I've been doing Kickstarter before there was Kickstarter; there was no Internet. Social Media was writing letters, making phone calls, beating the bushes. "

" There's an unwritten law that you cannot have a Jewish character in a film who isn't 100 percent perfect, or you're labeled anti-Semitic. "

" First of all, what in this world does not revolve around money? But money is a big part of film, unlike a lot of other art forms. "

" I'm riding my man Obama. I think he's a visionary. Actually, Barack told me the first date he took Michelle to was 'Do the Right Thing.' I said, Thank God I made it. Otherwise you would have taken her to 'Soul Man.' Michelle would have been like 'What's wrong with this brother?' "

" You have to do the research. If you don't know about something, then you ask the right people who do. "

" There's a lot of Americans, black and white, who think that we've arrived where we need to be and nothing else needs to be done and affirmative action needs to be dismantled. "

" A lot of times you get credit for stuff in your movies you didn't intend to be there. "