Quotes from Rick Famuyiwa

For me growing up when hip hop was forming and maturing and coming into its own, I just felt I was a part of something really exciting. I was a part of it as a consumer.

For those of us who grew in the early hip hop era, that music shaped us in a way to be in a position to express ourselves.

I think 'The Wood' was probably more concerned with the parts of Inglewood that aren't usually seen on film - the areas that were middle-class, or upper-middle-class - and that idea that these worlds do exist, and should be accepted as part of Inglewood itself.

There's a generation that doesn't care if Tom Cruise is at the top of the movie. They want authenticity.

I will continue to look for opportunities to tell stories that speak to a fresh generational, topical and multicultural point of view.

Now being 41 and looking back on my career... It became natural for me to revisit Inglewood and to revisit the coming-of-age movie, but not wanting it to feel like a period piece completely about nostalgia but wanting it to feel like something that was relevant today and also forward-looking.

I think we've now gotten to this point where we're growing more and more distrustful of our institutions, be they government or corporations or otherwise.

We live lives that aren't broken into neat three-act structures. On any given day anything can happen, from the hilarious to tragic. So why can't my movies be like that?

I was a political science major before I transferred into film school.

I loved films like 'When Harry Met Sally' and 'Annie Hall,' but these were very specific, white Manhattan experiences. You don't see a single person of color anywhere, but somehow these films are universal. As a filmmaker and creator, I was frustrated with that idea.

I think Black cinema is thought of in small terms. That's where most of the problems come from. When there's a film that has success, like in the '90s with the crime hood films; when one of them does well, it becomes the replication, or there's a romantic comedy that breaks out, it becomes a singular way of looking at it.

As a kid who grew up in Inglewood, California during the Showtime era, I'm so happy to help bring the story of Earvin 'Magic' Johnson to the screen. This project is a convergence of so many things that excite and interest me as a filmmaker.

Gangs are a part of living in Los Angeles, but you can exist in Inglewood or Culver City or anywhere else, without joining one.

I think the younger generation's view on race is slightly more evolved. It's a category far down on the list of how they see themselves.

You can't control where you are born, and when you're growing up, until you've seen something else, you're just living your life.

Lots of people knew who Kevin Hart was a decade before he hit it big.

I think the trick is to understand that universal isn't defined by a singular way of being. We don't have to somehow accept universal as being middle class, or white, or whatever it may be.

Societies are being interconnected and we have to adjust to that fact.

Inglewood is a microcosm of Los Angeles. It's a city by the airport. It's the first city when you're coming into L.A., and the last city when you leave.

I grew up on Spielberg and Lucas. That was sort of what inspired me to make movies.

I was in high school and college as hip-hop was really sort of coming into its own as a, you know, creative force, as a sort of cultural voice. And it really spoke to me.

Why is it when a woman makes a film or a movie stars a female cast it is labeled women-centric because it is not white, male and middle-class men?

When I wrote 'High Stakes,' I followed the classical format. I wrote an outline first, then a first draft, then got feedback and rewrote and rewrote it. I'd never done that before.

I'm first generation American, and my parents were both from Nigeria.