Spike Lee quotes - page 3

I may have been born yesterday, but I stayed up all night. (Spike Lee)
I think black people have to be in control of their own image because film is a powerful medium. We can't just sit back and let other people define our existence. View quote
Spike Lee
I ain't Martin Luther King. I don't need a dream. I have a plan. View quote
Spike Lee
Our greatness, our talent has never been the question. It's been a matter of grappling for control over what we do. View quote
Spike Lee
It is really important that young people find something that they want to do and pursue it with passion. I'm very passionate about filmmaking. It's what I love to do. View quote
Spike Lee
Racism is when you have laws set up, systematically put in a 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. View quote
Spike Lee
Critics like to build you up, tear you down, and then, if you're lucky, build you up again. View quote
Spike Lee
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. View quote
Spike Lee
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. View quote
Spike Lee
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. View quote
Spike Lee
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. (Spike Lee)
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. View quote
Spike Lee
'Do the Right Thing' was like the first film where I really felt comfortable working with actors. View quote
Spike Lee
I don't get tripped up in technology. I use technology as a tool. 'Oldboy' we shot Two Pro 35mm. For 'Da Blood of Jesus,' we shot digitally. We shot the new Sony F55. It's a 4K camera. View quote
Spike Lee
'She's Gotta Have It' was shot in twelve days and two six-day weeks. View quote
Spike Lee
I collect names for characters. Names are valuable they can be your first source of insight into a character. View quote
Spike Lee
I know that it's painful at times, but we're not making this up. The depths of degradation in cartoons, movies, and television shows, the misrepresentation of a people - it's an American legacy. Not just in television or movies, but in all media. View quote
Spike Lee
Here's the thing. I grew up in Fort Greene. I grew up here in New York. It's changed. And why does it take an influx of white New Yorkers in the south Bronx, in Harlem, in Bed-Stuy, in Crown Heights for the facilities to get better? View quote
Spike Lee