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Portrait of Spike Lee

Spike Lee

(1957) Film Director United States

141 quotes in 733 categories

Spike Lee is a film director from the United States, best known for Do the right thing.

Quick Facts About Spike Lee

Born: March 20, 1957
Nationality: United States
Profession: Film Director
Notable works: Do the right thing
Spouse: Tonya Lewis Lee

About Spike Lee

Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American filmmaker and actor. Cited by various publications as one of the most important filmmakers of the late 20th century, his work explores issues including race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty. Lee has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and three Peabody Awards, as well as nominations for three Golden Globes and a Grammy Award.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Awards & Honors

Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay Honorary César Academy Honorary Award BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay George Polk Award NAACP Image Award – Hall of Fame Award American Society of Cinematographers Awards Primetime Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking

Show 2 more awards

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Quotes by Spike Lee

Mike Tyson is the most complex person I've ever met in my life. I've known Mike since 1986. We're both from Brooklyn.…

Became

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A spine to my films that's become more evident to me is that many are about the choices people make, and the…

Choice

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I am very fortunate I can send my kids to private school, but everybody does not have the money. If you cannot…

Balls

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I really don't deal with hypotheticals.

Deals

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I've never seen black men with fine white women. They be ugly. Mugly dogs.

Black

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I may have been born yesterday, but I stayed up all night.

All night

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I consider Madonna a friend, and she sure knows how to work the publicity machine. Of course, I don't have breasts. If…

Breasts

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If you can't take a hit, you're not going to last long, that's for sure.

Ifs

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America doesn't have the moral right to tell other people what to do. To say the whole world has to fall into…

America

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I'm worried just as much about Donald Trump as that crazy guy in North Korea - and he has a nuclear code.…

Code

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I think the best actors in the world are here in New York City. And this city is just so vibrant the…

Able

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People sometimes forget all the films that we've done. They remember the likes of 'Malcolm X' and 'Do the Right Thing.' But…

Cinema

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I ain't Martin Luther King. I don't need a dream. I have a plan.

Dream

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Any film I do is not going to change the way black women have been portrayed, or black people have been portrayed,…

Black

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I think if people looked at my body of work, they'd see a great breadth of work.

Body

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Those that'll tell don't know, and those that know won't tell.

Knows

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As we move toward the millennium, the year 2000, the most powerful nations are not those that have nuclear bombs, but those…

Battle

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My cousin Malcolm Lee is also a filmmaker.

Cousin

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We've got to turn this backward thinking around where ignorance is championed over intelligence. Young black kids being ridiculed by their peers…

Black

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I've always tried to - when I've been able to - support young artists, no matter what medium.

Able

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'Red Hook Summer' is another chapter in my chronicles of Brooklyn.

Another

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You gotta make your own way. You gotta find a way. You gotta get it done. It's hard. It's tough. That's what…

Call me

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

Dance

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There's a lot of Americans, black and white, who think that we've arrived where we need to be and nothing else needs…

Action

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I think there's a lot of hope in my work. I don't think I'm a total pessimist, so I think you can…

Ends

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Spike Lee by topic

Film (37) People (31) Cinema (26) Thinking (18) Black (16) Ifs (13) Want (12) Trying (12) Stories (9) Right thing (9) Way (8) Time (8) Black people (8) Art (8)