As a person of color, I was just really tired of the fact that I wasn't seeing my story in the culture. — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
It occurred to me that by naming the film itself 'Dear White People,' I could tap into the burgeoning meme culture as… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
I remember distinctly not seeing myself. I didn't see myself in black culture, white culture, mass culture. — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
There is no monolithic black culture. It's completely different for someone born in Harlem to someone born in Houston or London with… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
The mark of a really great satire is its ability to seem prophetic, and I think that the television culture that film… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
When you're part of a society where you're constantly having to define your identity and sort of negotiate with what the mainstream… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
We get caught in our little silos and end up working against ourselves. And I think social media culture really encourages that,… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
Part of my struggle with being gay was that a lot of my homophobia was internalized because of the cues that I… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
One of the facets of growing up the way I did, I never had the experience of being solely in the black… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
I went to a school called Chapman University, which is a wonderful film school. It was a great program, but it was… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
This film isn't about "white racism", or racism at all. DEAR WHITE PEOPLE is about identity. It's about the difference between how… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
I don't doubt that straight white men have identity issues and identity complexes and struggle with defining themselves. — Justin Simien Copy Share
I thought I was depressed because I wasn't a writer/director. I moved into a space where I'm a writer/director, my movie is a hit… — Justin Simien Copy Share
I saw 'Beauty and the Beast' at eight years old in theatres and spent hours trying to recreate the majestic imagery of that story… — Justin Simien Copy Share
I'm very interested in clans and the way people group together, and there's a lot of group shots. There's a lot of people in… — Justin Simien Copy Share
One of the things that I love about Robert Altman's movies is that, really, a Robert Altman movie is just a bunch of short… — Justin Simien Copy Share
I am more than a black guy. I am a person, I'm storyteller, I'm a son, I'm a friend, so I am all those… — Justin Simien Copy Share
There are a plethora of ways of being black, just like there's many ways to being white. — Justin Simien Copy Share
The way Hollywood and TV is, black people don't have any choice but to see ourselves in white-dominated television shows and stories and movies. — Justin Simien Copy Share
Everybody else was quoting 2Pac, and I was running around with Green Day in my Walkman. Racially speaking, I wasn't cool or appropriate for… — Justin Simien Copy Share
Self-doubt is a constant companion for a chubby, gay, black boy born in the South. — Justin Simien Copy Share
In the press, there's this desire for the black audience to be this monolithic thing that always responds to the same stars. That's a… — Justin Simien Copy Share
It is a fine line between making fun of the right thing and making fun of the wrong thing. And the language oftentimes is… — Justin Simien Copy Share
Hip-hop isn't dead by any means, but it's not something I define my black identity with. — Justin Simien Copy Share
I took an internship at Focus Features while I was in film school. I was really interested in how specialty movies were marketed and… — Justin Simien Copy Share
