Quotes from Dee Rees

Going into a room and saying, 'I'm a black lesbian' - it's a strike against you.

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

With friendship, it's hard sometimes - you don't outgrow your friends, but you do question how people are friends to you in different ways and how it's okay to cultivate other relationships outside of that.

Shooting on film is great because it imparts discipline: What do you need to see so you're not finding it in the camera. When I'm shooting, I have the scene in mind, where I'm going to have certain lines. I learned to overlap and to shoot more than I think I need. That was the learning curve.

For kids who are struggling, who are of faith, just reconciling yourself to the fact that God loves you, accepts you for who you are, is a big step in the healing, especially when your biological family is unaccepting of you.

I grew up in Nashville in a white suburb. We lived next to a Klan member. We didn't see hoods, but my dad knew that guy was a Grand Dragon.

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

I was always going to direct. I wasn't going to hand my characters over to anyone else.

We shouldn't be discriminating against each other. The whole 'light skin versus dark skin' is an idea we need to break down.

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

The enemy is the system. And the system is made up of people, and we have a choice in that.

Our country is pathologically violent.

You don't have to make yourself look like people expect you to look.

You can't be limited by your own experience.

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