Quotes from Justin Simien

I've always thought that 'Dear White People' should live on as a TV show, so I'll leave it at that.

I think I'll always be making movies that intend to say something new.

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.

When you're part of a society where you're constantly having to define your identity and sort of negotiate with what the mainstream culture thinks you are, you have less energy and time to figure out who you are when you go home at night.

I've been taught through life experience that, like, I'd better open my mouth and quickly define myself in a new space and with new people because, if I don't, I will be defined.

We like to think of the '60s as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X and a little bit of friction - no, there were all of these different groups. There was the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Black Panthers, Martin and Malcolm, but also the Whitney Youngs of the world, the Bayard Rustins of the world.

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, you know, it's like I'm rooted in but not bound by.

I'm a lover of film and storytelling. I believe that I was put on earth to tell stories, and I'm not interested in telling the same stories over and over and over again.

That is just the reality of being a marginalized person in this country: you have to deal with the psychological impact of your oppressor - whether that's being a woman dealing with men or gay people dealing with straight people or trans people dealing with everybody else.

There is a difference between being offended and being prejudiced and even being bigoted against. There's a difference between that and racism.

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.

Stories teach us empathy. They reveal to us ourselves in the skins of others.

I think art is much more valuable when it's honest. If it's not honest, it's just propaganda.

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 find myself listening to Blood Orange and Janelle Monae and artists like that.

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 films about various people told at the same time.

There is an obsession with black tragedy. If you see a black movie, it's typically historical, and it tends to deal with our pain. And listen, there have been some excellent films made in that vein, and there are some painful parts of black history that should be explored, but it is kind of weird that only those films bubble up to the surface.

The Black Lives Matter movement has spawned all kinds of activism.

America is a different country, and it will forever be a different country after the election of Donald Trump.

It's not new to attempt to vilify the minority that speaks about their oppression. That's not a new thing.

Hollywood is a world where the only thing that gets green-lit is something that made money the last year.