Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Racism is wrong, racism is very dangerous.
To surrender your ego, you have to have one first.
I think we all have identity crises throughout our lives.
I think I have a threshold for taking things too seriously.
The Black Lives Matter movement has spawned all kinds of activism.
I never liked 'Donnie Darko' quite as much as my film school peers.
I like the movies that embrace the complexity of the human condition.
I think I'll always be making movies that intend to say something new.
There can't be reverse racism against a group that is not at a disadvantage.
Stories teach us empathy. They reveal to us ourselves in the skins of others.
I find myself listening to Blood Orange and Janelle Monae and artists like that.
Self-doubt is a constant companion for a chubby, gay, black boy born in the South.
The thing about TV is you kind of have an endless canvas. You can always keep going.
Hip-hop isn't dead by any means, but it's not something I define my black identity with.
I think art is much more valuable when it's honest. If it's not honest, it's just propaganda.
It's always kind of gratifying to go back to the place that launched you and show you did good.
I've always thought that 'Dear White People' should live on as a TV show, so I'll leave it at that.
As a person of color, I was just really tired of the fact that I wasn't seeing my story in the culture.
I wanted to be a filmmaker since I was a kid. I always did things that took me a little closer to that.
Shonda Rhimes has figured it out, of getting multiracial casts on television and appealing to everybody.
Hollywood is a world where the only thing that gets green-lit is something that made money the last year.
I definitely have fun commenting on the real world and interpreting through the 'Dear White People' lens.
It's not new to attempt to vilify the minority that speaks about their oppression. That's not a new thing.
I remember distinctly not seeing myself. I didn't see myself in black culture, white culture, mass culture.
America is a different country, and it will forever be a different country after the election of Donald Trump.
America is a different country, and it will forever be a different country, after the election of Donald Trump.
Black people are experiencing a systemic disadvantage, and it goes back to slavery, which was not that long ago.
I think great movies do promote conversation, great movies are honest, and great movies are sometimes polarizing.
I want the Latino 'Do the Right Thing' to happen. I want filmmakers whose voices are not represented to get a shot.
You know what, man, that's part and parcel of being a black person in this country: everything's harder. It just is.
I don't doubt that straight white men have identity issues and identity complexes and struggle with defining themselves.
One of the most powerful lessons I learned is when you make an argument in a film, you have to make sure both characters are right.
It is a fine line between making fun of the right thing and making fun of the wrong thing. And the language oftentimes is the same.
Satire and comedy are really the only film mediums where you can get into ideas and have people leave the theater without being moralized.
Usually, with 'Star Trek,' you always trust the captain. The captains are always going to pull us through; the captain's always going to win.
Sometimes identity can be your salvation. It can be liberating to find your place in the world, but at some point, identity can hold you back.
There is a difference between being offended and being prejudiced and even being bigoted against. There's a difference between that and racism.
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.
I love great prestige television, but because I make television, sometimes I don't want to, like, you know, fall into a very heavy cerebral drama.
Basically, the system works to my disadvantage for no other reason than that I am a person of color, and I am telling stories about people of color.
The further away you get from being a straight white man, the less freedoms you have to figure out who you are and negotiate what you mean to society.
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 any group.
As a director, I try not to implement a way for working, for every single actor, across the board. I try to work with each one, on an individual basis.
I was blessed enough to know that I wanted to be a filmmaker when I was a kid, the first time I realized that that was something people did for a living.
Racism is over in the 'Star Trek' future, but they found a way to comment on sexism and racism in the present day in such a subversive and smart way, you know?
I saw 'Beauty and the Beast' at eight years old in theatres and spent hours trying to recreate the majestic imagery of that story in a drawing notepad at home.
The downside of doing a multi-protagonist movie is that you don't get to service each character as you would if they were the central protagonist of the movie.
I tend to take on too many projects at the same time, but as I've always done, I will continue to shift my focus onto whatever feels most urgent in the moment.
If the characters [in a movie] aren't real, if their lives aren't realistic, if you call bullshit at any point in their journey, then the rest of it is invalid.
I tend to be collaborative, and I want to hear other people's ideas. Especially with actors, I want them to feel like they can breathe life into their characters.