Dee Rees

Coming-of-age stories, people roll their eyes.

— Dee Rees

I think art breaks down otherness.

— Dee Rees

I feel a lot of folks, like teenagers, can feel like outcasts.

— Dee Rees

You can't be limited by your own experience.

— Dee Rees

I like 'Paris is Burning' by Jennie Livington.

— Dee Rees

When I'm on set, I know what I want.

— Dee Rees

I'm interested in characters and relationships.

— Dee Rees

I still want to do features, but on my own terms.

— Dee Rees

It's okay to be yourself and to love and accept yourself however you are.

— Dee Rees

'Mudbound' highlights the fact that we're still battling a lot of the same issues as we were all of those decades ago.

— Dee Rees

Knowing what you want is not a shortcoming. Let people deal with their own anxieties.

— Dee Rees

Culture - art, music, literature - is the long game, because it's the way to change people's ideas in a more personal…

— Dee Rees

I thought that marketing was a way to be creative in business but quickly learned all creative stuff happens at the ad…

— Dee Rees

You don't have to make your life look like anybody else says it should look.

— Dee Rees

To have a simultaneous global audience as an artist is more than you could ever hope for.

— Dee Rees

Having to stake out your identity and have people question whether or not you're being yourself was a tension that I could…

— Dee Rees

There's a lot of power in saying no to big things that you don't want to do in order to say yes…

— Dee Rees

Art makes you see people as individual, unique human beings. Art, in that way, allows us to see each other in particulate,…

— Dee Rees

For me, 'Pariah' is very much about that inner churn. It's about this person's emotional inner life, and that's really what I…

— Dee Rees

People have almost been lulled into complacency because there are no signs over the water fountains. But the signs have been in…

— Dee Rees

Creatively, I just like interesting characters. So straight, gay, or whatever - like, whatever, wherever the characters are coming from or their…

— Dee Rees

I love directing because you get to see your film come to life. You get to work with the actors. There's something…

— Dee Rees

I was interested with exploring the idea of who gets to be in possession of the land - how it's sometimes impossible…

— Dee Rees

I grew up listening to Mary J. Blige's music. When I initially met her, it was like, 'Oh, wow. I'm meeting this…

— Dee Rees

In an industry that's uncertain and when you're in a lot of situations that are anxiety-causing, to have someone there who has…

— Dee Rees

I look at Woody Allen's prolific career of 30 or 40 films, and I'm watching the clock. I'd love to work at…

— Dee Rees

I've always liked to write, but I never thought I could make a career out of it. I went to business school…

— Dee Rees

I very much related to the idea of sexual identity and how it doesn't have to be black and white. When I…

— Dee Rees

When I first started going out to lesbian clubs, I felt a very binary recreation of hetero culture. There are butches and…

— Dee Rees

I started out at Procter & Gamble marketing panty liners, so basically selling women insecurity. I thought there must be more to…

— Dee Rees

I think 'Mudbound' reveals the interconnectiveness of our stories. You can't separate out threads of history and race as economic construct. 'Mudbound'…

— Dee Rees

I remember one summer I played, like, with the granddaughter of this known Klan member. Like, all summer we caught cicadas. And…

— Dee Rees

To me, if you can do the Wicked Witch live, you can play anybody.

— Dee Rees

For each character, I try to understand what is driving them.

— Dee Rees

I can't put anything out that's not me.

— Dee Rees

I'm always choosing the hard things, the things that aren't easy.

— Dee Rees

My ultimate dream was just to be an auteur.

— Dee Rees

Our country is pathologically violent.

— Dee Rees

For me, like, obviously, I want to see myself onscreen.

— Dee Rees

I think art always comments on the time and place it was created.

— Dee Rees