I don't dictate, you don't dictate to Stevie Wonder, not successfully.
— Spike Lee
I think it would be very boring dramatically to have a film where everybody was a lawyer or doctor and had no faults. To me, the most important thing is to be truthful.
I think people who have faults are a lot more interesting than people who are perfect.
I get offered to do stuff where the money's nice but it's not something I want to do - I get offered a lot of commercials too.
I live in New York City, the stories of my films take place in New York; I'm a New York filmmaker.
All directors are storytellers, so the motivation was to tell the story I wanted to tell. That's what I love.
I always give the example, if you turn on the radio today, black radio, Lenny Kravitz is not black. Bob Marley wasn't black: in the beginning, only white college stations played Bob Marley.
A lot of times, we censor ourselves before the censor even gets there.
I'm just trying to tell a good story and make thought-provoking, entertaining films. I just try and draw upon the great culture we have as a people, from music, novels, the streets.
My cousin Malcolm Lee is also a filmmaker.
I think it is very important that films make people look at what they've forgotten.
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.
A lot of times you get credit for stuff in your movies you didn't intend to be there.
Any film I do is not going to change the way black women have been portrayed, or black people have been portrayed, in cinema since the days of D.W. Griffith.
I think my work shows that I love women. I understand where these types of criticisms are coming from because black people have been so dogged out in the media, they're just extra sensitive.
We grew up in a very creative environment and were exposed to the arts at a very young age, so it's not a surprise that all of us are in some form of the arts.
Everything I do is always scrutinised. But that's all I'll say about that.
It comes down to this: black people were stripped of our identities when we were brought here, and it's been a quest since then to define who we are.
