Spike Lee Quotes

"Too many people are being bowled over by Bush and Tony Blair in Britain. It`s ludicrous to expect the whole world to follow what they want. America doesn`t have the moral right to tell other people what to do. To say the whole world has to fall into line is you-know-what. I hope more people will rise up."

"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. "

"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 that every minority in the United States of America knows everything about the dominant culture. From the time you can think, you are bombarded with images from TV, film, magazines, newspapers. It was not an issue, I didn`t scratch my head and think, "How am I going to direct white actors?" I`ve worked with white actors before in a lot of my films, but that question has come up doing the press for this film in the States, "How was it to work with white actors, did you have a different approach?"

"All directors are storytellers"

"I respect the audience`s intelligence a lot, and that`s why I don`t try to go for the lowest common denominator." -- at the New York premiere of his media satire "Bamboozled".

"But actresses are asked to compromise themselves, not just from the director but the producer too - `Are you going to show your tits or your ass?` They say that shit all the time. It is men making decisions. And of course they would rather have heads explode on screen than show a penis."

"For me, a large part of Jungle Fever (1991) is about sexual mythology: the mythology of a white woman being on a pedestal, the universal standard of beauty, and the mythology about the black man as sexual stud with a ten-foot dick. Buying into the mythology is not a strong foundation for a relationship."

(Speaking out after the death of comedian Richard Pryor): "He was an innovator and a trailblazer. It`s a great loss".

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

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.

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

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

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.

I always give the example, if you turn on the radio today, black radio, Lenny Kravitz is not black. Bob Marley wasn`t black: in the beginning, only white college stations played Bob Marley.

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.

Any film I do is not going to change the way black women have been portrayed, or black people have been portrayed, in cinema since the days of D.W. Griffith.

You just have to be on good terms with the actors and talk stuff out beforehand. A perfect example is She Hate Me - I had many different discussions with many different women, and also with (the actor) Anthony Mackie, so they knew. And this was before they even agreed to do the film. But actors want to know - `Here, it says they make love. What type of acts are we talking about? What`s going to be seen?` I have no problem with that. At the same time, I still want to allow myself some flexibility. But shooting a sex scene is very mechanical - `Will you move this way? That way? Raise your leg?` And for the most part the crew isn`t allowed to be there - I close the set, make it as comfortable as possible.

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.

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.

Right now a lot of people are still choosing to go to Toronto instead of shooting in New York City, something I haven`t done and something I hope I`ll never have to do.

I think it is very important that films make people look at what they`ve forgotten.

Amongst black people, you have always heard it said that once a black man reaches a certain level, especially if you are an entertainer, you get a white trophy woman. I didn`t make that up.

It comes down to this: black people were stripped of our identities when we were brought here, and it`s been a quest since then to define who we are.

If we became students of Malcolm X, we would not have young black men out there killing each other like they`re killing each other now. Young black men would not be impregnating young black women at the rate going on now. We`d not have the drugs we have now, or the alcoholism.

Before, I used to think that everything was based on race. Now class matters just as much. If you are a poor person: black, white, Latino, whatever, the Bush Administration does not have your best interests at heart. If the Government thought poor people mattered, the response (to Katrina`s disaster) would have been much quicker. (March 2006)

I live in New York City, the stories of my films take place in New York; I`m a New York filmmaker.

My cousin Malcolm Lee is also a filmmaker.

Making films has got to be one of the hardest endeavors known to humankind. Straight up and down, film work is hard shit.

Agents aren`t going to get you anywhere if you aren`t established.

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.

All directors are storytellers, so the motivation was to tell the story I wanted to tell. That`s what I love.

I think people who have faults are a lot more interesting than people who are perfect.

Wim Wenders had better watch out `cause I`m waiting for his ass. Somewhere deep in my closet I have a Louisville Slugger bat with Wenders` name on it.

I think my work shows that I love women. I understand where these types of criticisms are coming from because black people have been so dogged out in the media, they`re just extra sensitive.

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.

You have to do the research. If you don`t know about something, then you ask the right people who do. With She`s Gotta Have It (1986), I don`t think I got any revelation; it was just good to hear the women whom I interviewed confirm what I thought already.

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.

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.

I`d like to state that Spike Lee is not saying that African American culture is just for black people alone to enjoy and cherish. Culture is for everybody.

We grew up in a very creative environment and were exposed to the arts at a very young age, so it`s not a surprise that all of us are in some form of the arts.

Since the days of slavery, if you were a good singer or dancer, it was your job to perform for the master after dinner.

A lot of times you get credit for stuff in your movies you didn`t intend to be there.

Fight the power that be. Fight the power.

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

Racism is when you have laws set up, systematically put in the way to keep people from advancing, to stop the advancement of a people. Black people have never had the power to enforce racism, and so this is something that white America is going to have to work out themselves. If they decide they want to stop it, curtail it, or to do the right thing then it will be done, but not until then.

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.

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