Putting on a movie is like going to war - for me, at least. It's all about time; time is money, and we don't have it. So it's all about getting to know each other intimately quickly. You are with family members that you like or don't like, but you can't leave them because you're stuck with them.
— Lee Daniels
'Push' had a story, 'The Paperboy' story you could just throw up in the air and shoot holes through the book because the story wasn't as strong. But I felt the characters were stronger in 'The Paperboy'; they were vivid.
I definitely caught the acting bug, but that lasted for about two seconds when I found my way to L.A. and found that my talents were better suited behind the cameras.
People enjoy making fun of people who are famous; they love putting people down.
I moved on to a nursing agency as a receptionist just to get a job, and ended up managing it, which led to me opening my own - say your mom is sick and needs someone to help her, then you call something like what I had: a home health agency.
I started casting. I cast music videos, but I kept getting fired from jobs because I was iconoclastic in my ways of casting.
Some of the most provocative TV that I'm inspired by is in the U.K. You guys take it for granted, but in America, we can't do it.
Most times when I do a film, it starts out with one idea and ends up not being what I thought it was going to be.
My mom knew early on that I was gay, and she knew that I had to get out of the ghetto.
When you have a lot of siblings, you always do something to feel special.
'Empire' was a very traumatic experience for me. It was very schizophrenic, and it wasn't what I expected it to be.
I'm always more comfortable and in a good place when I'm with friends because I know they trust me. I'm able to get great performances from people who trust me.
I don't read the reviews, the blogs, or anything else. Instead, I feel the audience when I show the film.
I think that, as African-Americans, oftentimes we have to put ourselves on pedestals as opposed to really looking at ourselves and trying to understand ourselves and become better people. We always have to be on pedestals.
When I was young, I went to a church where the lighter-skinned you were, the closer you sat to the altar.
I'm still pulled over... We were nominated for two Oscars for 'Monster's Ball,' and I almost didn't make the Oscars because I got pulled over in Beverly Hills.
I love actors, and I'm very protective of them. I trust them. It's a mutual trust.
When you're paying everybody nothing, I mean, they have homes to pay for. And my movies are like putting on theater. Nicole Kidman is at craft services, and John Cusack is moving furniture; there are no egos. The only ego is the story.
While I am not a musician, I love music. I have over 15,000 songs on my iPod. Everything from hard core rap to the soundtrack from the original 'Cinderella.'
I was the oldest of five children, each about a year apart, and my mother, bless her heart, had her hands full.
I knew that I'd end up directing because I'm so hands-on with my films.
I came to Hollywood to write and found out I don't have the attention span.
I thought I could write. So it was my intention to start off as a writer. But I wasn't really great at delivering the word at the end of the day.
I love black women. I live for them. They are everything to me. I'm obsessed with them. They are sophisticated, resilient and smarter than me.
I drank from colored water fountains and from the white water fountain just to see what it was like when I was a kid. What shocks me is that these kids today don't realize that this happened in many of our lifetimes.
My mom had five kids. And she came home after working three jobs, and I'd rub her feet. We'd all rub her feet. We were lucky to get any time with her.
I don't profess to be Shonda Rhimes by any stretch of the imagination, or Dick Wolf. They're icons. I'm a filmmaker.
I'm not Tyler Perry. I'm not Dino De Laurentis. I think it's a bit much to put one's name in front of the film. It makes me uncomfortable.
I've had all types of beautiful girls tell me that they ugly when they look in the mirror, as if it's someone else's reflection they see.
I don't know whether everybody likes the films that I do. I know that I love them, and I believe the way that I raise my kids that they will love them, and that's what most important to me.
'Shadowboxer' was based on my life.
'Precious' is so not P.C. What I learned from doing the film is that even though I am black, I'm prejudiced. I'm prejudiced against people who are darker than me.
The rules are: The only ego is the film, and you have to serve the film.
I think this last film I finished, 'The Butler,' is the closest I will come to as a work-for-hire.
What attracts me to material are characters that I know - characters that I know people don't know but I know - and bringing them to the screen. Spotlighting voices that have not been heard before on screen.
In L.A., I was a talent manager for many years. I represented many African-American actors. After a while, I became disheartened over the shortage of roles for African Americans.
I come from a family of servants. My father's father was a servant, and my father's father's father was a slave.
I didn't have the sensibilities of your ordinary filmmaker, let alone your ordinary African-American filmmaker. My heroes were John Waters, Pedro Almodovar, and actors that were part of that world.
I worked at Warner Bros. for a while. I was the head of the minority talent casting. It was like pre-Spike Lee and post-blaxploitation era.
I went to school at Radnor High School. And I went to a liberal arts college in St. Louis, Missouri, called Lindenwood College.
My mission is to let black kids know that their dreams can happen.
Most of my friends are dead. I watched friends die in my arms at 5, 6, 8. When I grew up, the rest of my friends died of AIDS.
I have twins that I didn't want to have the life that I had. I didn't have a great life growing up.
I've never done a studio movie, let alone worked for a network. Every one of my films has been independently financed.
I think the father-son love story is a universal one which transcends color.
It's hard for me to accept love. I wish I could lie to you and tell you that it's easy for me, but it's not.
My work is therapeutic: 'Monster's Ball,' 'Woodsman' and 'Shadowboxer,' because I don't go to therapy, and I sort of live life through my films.
I am so used to having two faces. A face that I had for black America and a face for white America. When Obama became president, I lost both faces. Now I only have one face.
Most actors want the audience to like them, and that leads to bad acting.
I look at my movies; I call my movies 'the kid.' It's like I'm giving birth. I'm in the cocoon, you know?
