Spike Lee Quotes - Page 2

As a people we do not need anyone else's stamp of approval.

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

I don't think racism can be eliminated in my lifetime ... or my children's or grandchildren's. But I think it's something we have to strive for. I'm going to keep working toward that day coming.

Making films has got to be one of the hardest endeavors known to humankind.

Cause mo better makes it mo better.

I give interracial couples a look. Daggers. They get uncomfortable when they see me on the street.

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.

I mean, I think there's a lot of hope in my work. I don't think I'm a total pessimist, so I think you can find hope in all my films. Some more than others, but there's definitely... I think we want to convey the feeling of hope with the montage at the end.

Critics like to build you up, tear you down, and then, if you're lucky, build you up again.

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.

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.

We’ve gone through the names—Negro, African American, African, Black. For me that’s an indication of a people still trying to find their identity. Who determines what is black?

I'm always open. I try not to have a closed mind. In fact the only reason why I'm able to continue to make films since 1986 is I have been adaptable. If I weren't flexible I sure wouldn't be making films this many years as I've been doing it. I've been making a film a year almost since 1986 and that's hard. That ain't easy.

I've never seen black men with fine white women. They be ugly. Mugly dogs.

Stick around long enough, you'll get some grace.

If you can't take a hit, you're not going to last long, that's for sure.

I'm not the go-to guy. Everybody is trying to tell their story and have different ways of telling it.

Racism in America absolutely exists - it is an issue. We need to fix it. We're a great country - probably the greatest country but we could be a hell of a lot greater.

Fight the power that be. Fight the power.

I wouldn't be doing motherfu**ing films for almost three decades if every time I did something that someone didn't like I went in a fu**ing cocoon and just hid there and didn't make my art.

I've always tried to - when I've been able to - support young artists, no matter what medium.

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.

A lot of times, we censor ourselves before the censor even gets there.

Everybody does what they want to do for their own specific reasons.

I've got "Sometimers." Sometimes I remember and sometimes I forget.