Quotes from Spike Lee

I've got "Sometimers." Sometimes I remember and sometimes I forget.

I tend to favour films that have multiple plot and story lines, multiple characters and ensemble pieces.

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 to take advantage of that while I'm still bankable.

I respect the audience's intelligence a lot, and that's why I don't try to go for the lowest common denominator.

'She's Gotta Have It' was shot in twelve days and two six-day weeks.

'Do the Right Thing' was my first union film. I looked at the rosters, and for the most part, it was white males. Especially the Teamsters. So we had some conversations.

I used the principles of Kickstarter to make 'She's Gotta Have It.' We filmed that in 1985 to 1986. The final cost was $175,000. I didn't have that money. It was friends, grants, donations. We saved our bottles for the nickel deposit.

I'm blessed, I can afford to send my children to private school.

My cousin Malcolm Lee is also a filmmaker.

I knew I was never going to play professional sport, but I loved playing and I went to all the games I could afford to.

I think it is very important that films make people look at what they've forgotten.

'She's Gotta Have It' and 'School Daze,' I really didn't know what I was doing. And the biggest indicator of that was the acting. 'Do the Right Thing' was like the first film where I really felt comfortable working with actors.

'Do the Right Thing' was like the first film where I really felt comfortable working with actors.

Don't think that because you haven't heard from me for a while that I went to sleep. I am still here, like a spirit roaming the night. Thirsty, hungry, seldom stopping to rest.

I don't get tripped up in technology. I use technology as a tool. 'Oldboy' we shot Two Pro 35mm. For 'Da Blood of Jesus,' we shot digitally. We shot the new Sony F55. It's a 4K camera.

I wouldn't be doing motherfu**ing films for almost three decades if every time I did something that someone didn't like I went in a fu**ing cocoon and just hid there and didn't make my art.

Any time you talk about the look of the film, it's not just the director and the director of photography. You have to include the costume designer and the production designer.

I don't dictate, you don't dictate to Stevie Wonder, not successfully.

People sometimes forget all the films that we've done. They remember the likes of 'Malcolm X' and 'Do the Right Thing.' But I've been working since 1986. From the beginning, I was determined to not just be a flash in the pan. I've got to keep up with Woody Allen. He's lapping me.

When you love something it's not a job anymore.

Right now a lot of people are still choosing to go to Toronto instead of shooting in New York City, something I haven't done and something I hope I'll never have to do.

I am a hybrid. I do independent films and also do Hollywood films - I love them both.

You have to do the research. If you don't know about something, then you ask the right people who do.

When I went to school, you had to take art, you had to play an instrument. You had to play an instrument. But it's all degraded since then. I do not know what kind of nation we are that is cutting art, music, and gym out of the public-school curriculum.