Spike Lee Quotes

82 quotes in 1122 categories

• Violence is a part of America. I don't want to single out rap music. Let's be honest. America's the most violent country in the history…
• We grew up in a very creative environment and were exposed to the arts at a very young age, so it's not a surprise that…
• Critics like to build you up, tear you down, and then, if you're lucky, build you up again.
• A woman who is very secure in herself, what she's about, what she wants to do, who probably figures that she's a prize catch-sooner or…
• We're the most violent nation on earth. There's no getting away from that. But you've got to look at it on a broader level.
• I give interracial couples a look. Daggers. They get uncomfortable when they see me on the street.
• I ain't Martin Luther King. I don't need a dream. I have a plan.
• I respect the audience's intelligence a lot, and that's why I don't try to go for the lowest common denominator.
• American slavery was not a Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It was a holocaust. My ancestors are slaves. Stolen from Africa. I will honor them.
• What's the difference between Hollywood characters and my characters? Mine are real.
• I've been blessed with the opportunity to express the views of black people who otherwise don't have access to power and the media. I have…
• I believe in destiny. But I also believe that you can’t just sit back and let destiny happen. A lot of times, an opportunity might…
• 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 I tell my…
• We’ve gone through the names—Negro, African American, African, Black. For me that’s an indication of a people still trying to find their identity. Who determines…
• Because many advances have happened, we've lost the urgency (and that's just human nature) that we had before, when we couldn't vote, couldn't use mass…
• There’s always been this hocus-pocus or magical, mystical thing associated with the making of film that sort of psyches people out and makes them think…
• I think it is very important that films make people look at what they've forgotten.
• As a people we do not need anyone else's stamp of approval.
• 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…
• People of color have a constant frustration of not being represented, or being misrepresented, and these images go around the world.

Browse Spike Lee Quotes by Category