I see racism as institutional: the rules are different for me because I'm black. It's not necessarily someone's specific attitude against me; it's just the fact that I, as a black man, have a much harder time making an art-house… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
I love films from all these different points of views that used the idea of the school as a way to talk about the American experience. It took me a while to figure how to write a movie like that,… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 positions that people feel like they're in attack mode, kind of pointed at each other in the frame. I'm not a big fan of shooting something that looks like it could belong in any movie, I'm… — 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 Image
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 things so it is frustrating to a degree to be limited by other people's perceptions of me but at the same time, it is true that I am a black guy and it's like I'm rooted… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
Self-doubt is a constant companion for a chubby, gay, black boy born in the South. — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
