Spike Lee Quotes & Sayings

Racism is when you have laws set up, systematically put in a way to keep people from advancing, to stop the advancement of a people. Black people have never had the power to enforce racism, and so this is something that white America is going to have to work out themselves. If they decide they want to stop it, curtail it, or to do the right thing ... then it will be done, but not until then. — Spike Lee

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

As we move toward the millennium, the year 2000, the most powerful nations are not those that have nuclear bombs, but those that control the media. That's where the battle is being fought; that is how you control people's minds. — Spike Lee

I had a great education. From kindergarten to John Dewey High School in Coney Island, I am public-school educated. — Spike Lee

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. — Spike Lee

I don't see any negativity with what Brad Pitt is doing with his Make It Right Foundation, or what Sean Penn is trying to do in Haiti. — Spike Lee

'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. — Spike Lee

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

I think black people have to be in control of their own image because film is a powerful medium. We can't just sit back and let other people define our existence. — Spike Lee

I believe in destiny. But I also believe that you can't just sit back and let destiny happen. A lot of times, an opportunity might fall into your lap, but you have to be ready for that opportunity. You can't sit there waiting on it. A lot of times you are going to have to get out there and make it happen. — Spike Lee

We're the most violent nation on earth. There's no getting away from that. But you've got to look at it on a broader level. — Spike Lee

All directors are storytellers, so the motivation was to tell the story I wanted to tell. That's what I love. — Spike Lee

I'd like to state that Spike Lee is not saying that African American culture is just for black people alone to enjoy and cherish. Culture is for everybody. — Spike Lee

Amongst black people, you have always heard it said that once a black man reaches a certain level, especially if you are an entertainer, you get a white trophy woman. I didn't make that up. — Spike Lee

I'm a storyteller, and there's some genres I like. I don't think I'm ever going to do science fiction, but I want to do a musical one day. I want to tell stories, I don't really try to get boxed in by a specific genre. — Spike Lee

I've never seen black men with fine white women. They be ugly. Mugly dogs. — Spike Lee

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. — Spike Lee

I'll be vilified if I shoot a film in Toronto for New York. And rightfully so! — Spike Lee

I live in New York City, the stories of my films take place in New York; I'm a New York filmmaker. — Spike Lee

I'm very careful about how I portray violence in my films. I do believe that violence, especially violent video games, are not a good thing for young kids. — Spike Lee

Most human beings will not stand in front of a stage and tell you about the bad things they did. — Spike Lee

We've gone through the names - Negro, African American, African, Black. For me that's an indication of a people still trying to find their identity. Who determines what is black? — Spike Lee

I really don't deal with hypotheticals. — Spike Lee

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. — Spike Lee

American slavery was not a Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It was a holocaust. My ancestors are slaves. Stolen from Africa. I will honor them. — Spike Lee

Everything I do is always scrutinised. But that's all I'll say about that. — Spike Lee

A lot of times you get credit for stuff in your movies you didn't intend to be there. — Spike Lee

I am very fortunate I can send my kids to private school, but everybody does not have the money. If you cannot get your kid in a good school today, your kids are going to be behind the eight ball. — Spike Lee

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

I'm always open to new, innovative stuff and people trying to do stuff in a different way. I knew that the theatrical release would be like getting on the launch pad for Amazon Prime but I was okay with that because I think what Jeff Bezos and Ted Hope are doing is innovative. — Spike Lee

I'm always open. I try not to have a closed mind. In fact the only reason why I'm able to continue to make films since 1986 is I have been adaptable. If I weren't flexible I sure wouldn't be making films this many years as I've been doing it. I've been making a film a year almost since 1986 and that's hard. That ain't easy. — Spike Lee

Those that'll tell don't know, and those that know won't tell. — Spike Lee

Power is knowing your past. — Spike Lee

I don't think my films are going to get rid of racism or prejudice. I think the best thing my films can do is provoke discussion. — Spike Lee

He revolutionized music videos. Before Michael Jackson, MTV refused to play African-American artists. — Spike Lee

First of all, what in this world does not revolve around money? But money is a big part of film, unlike a lot of other art forms. — Spike Lee

I never understood the concept of showing everything in the trailer. Why go to a movie if there's no surprise? I can't do it like that. — Spike Lee

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. — Spike Lee

I didn't dream about being a director. I didn't know I wanted to do something with film until the summer between my sophomore and junior years at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. — Spike Lee

I think people who have faults are a lot more interesting than people who are perfect. — Spike Lee

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

If people go to IMDB, they will see that I'm very comfortable with independent cinema, and doing studio films too. For me this is not an either/or situation. — Spike Lee

My cousin Malcolm Lee is also a filmmaker. — Spike Lee

A spine to my films that's become more evident to me is that many are about the choices people make, and the reverberations of those choices. You go this way, or that way, and either way, there's going to be consequences. — Spike Lee

My people, my people, what can I say; say what I can. I saw it but didn't believe it; I didn't believe what I saw. Are we gonna live together? Together are we gonna live? — Spike Lee

People of color have a constant frustration of not being represented, or being misrepresented, and these images go around the world. — Spike Lee

I'm an independent filmmaker with complete creative control of my films. I hire who I want. I have final cut. But at the same time, I go directly to Hollywood for financing and distribution. I find it's best for me to work within the Hollywood system. — Spike Lee

It is really important that young people find something that they want to do and pursue it with passion. I'm very passionate about filmmaking. It's what I love to do. — Spike Lee

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. — Spike Lee

I am trying to stay away from this position of me "returning to my roots." As if my roots are that I'm only comfortable working on low-budget, small films. That's not the case at all. — Spike Lee

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

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. — Spike Lee

I don't like to use the word 'remake', I think reinterpretation is a better word. It's just a matter of respecting the source, and then trying to make your own film, and trying not to be inhibited by being so beholden to every single thing ... We respect the source, but we make changes to it. — Spike Lee

I like people to look like they're floating. — Spike Lee

My grandmother lived to be 100 years old. Her grandmother was a slave, yet she was a college graduate in the Spellman class of 1917. She taught art for 50 years and she saved her Social Security checks for her children's education. — Spike Lee

Sex and racism have always been tied together. Look at the thousands of black men who got lynched and castrated. The reason the Klan came into being was to protect white southern women. — Spike Lee

And one thing Hollywood does well is sequels. — Spike Lee

I think the best actors in the world are here in New York City. And this city is just so vibrant the energy is just phenomenal. Great crews here. All the technicians, all the artists that work in this industry. I've just been very happy with the body that we've been able to do, especially those films we shot here in New York City. — Spike Lee

There's a lot of Americans, black and white, who think that we've arrived where we need to be and nothing else needs to be done and affirmative action needs to be dismantled. — Spike Lee

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. — 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. — Spike Lee

I think there's a lot of hope in my work. I don't think I'm a total pessimist, so I think you can find hope in all my films. Some more than others, but there's definitely ... I think we want to convey the feeling of hope with the montage at the end. — Spike Lee

What's the difference between Hollywood characters and my characters? Mine are real. — Spike Lee

I think that every minority in the United States of America knows everything about the dominant culture. From the time you can think, you are bombarded with images from TV, film, magazines, newspapers. — Spike Lee

If you have a talented family, you should be shot if you don't use them. — Spike Lee

I like to work with the same people when I can, and you want to get people with the same interests that you have, and the same aesthetic. — Spike Lee

People think I'm this angry black man walking around in a constant state of rage. — Spike Lee

Since the days of slavery, if you were a good singer or dancer, it was your job to perform for the master after dinner. — Spike Lee

'Red Hook Summer' is another chapter in my chronicles of Brooklyn. — Spike Lee

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

The truth is I've been doing Kickstarter before there was Kickstarter; there was no Internet. Social Media was writing letters, making phone calls, beating the bushes. — Spike Lee

Music is, for me, a great tool of a filmmaker, the same way cinematography, the acting, editing, post-production, the costumes are. You know, to help you tell a story. — Spike Lee

There's an unwritten law that you cannot have a Jewish character in a film who isn't 100 percent perfect, or you're labeled anti-Semitic. — Spike Lee

I decided to be a filmmaker between my sophomore and junior years at Morehouse. Before I left for the summer of 1977, my advisor told me I really had to declare a major when I came back, because I'd used all my electives in my first two years. I went back to New York and I couldn't find a job. There were none to be had. And that previous Christmas someone gave me a Super-8 camera, so I just started to shoot stuff. — Spike Lee

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

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. — Spike Lee

As a people we do not need anyone else's stamp of approval. — Spike Lee

As a writer I want everybody to get a chance to voice their opinions. If each character thinks that they're telling the truth, then it's valid. Then at the end of the film, I leave it up to the audience to decide who did the right thing. — Spike Lee

There's always been this hocus-pocus or magical, mystical thing associated with the making of film that sort of psyches people out and makes them think that this cannot be done; that this is a craft that cannot be learned. — Spike Lee

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. — Spike Lee

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. — Spike Lee

I may have been born yesterday, but I stayed up all night. — Spike Lee

I'm riding my man Obama. I think he's a visionary. Actually, Barack told me the first date he took Michelle to was 'Do the Right Thing.' I said, Thank God I made it. Otherwise you would have taken her to 'Soul Man.' Michelle would have been like 'What's wrong with this brother?' — Spike Lee

Cause mo better makes it mo better. — Spike Lee

If you can't take a hit, you're not going to last long, that's for sure. — Spike Lee

I'm surprised that Hollywood and networks have not been diverse as other industries. — Spike Lee

Violence is a part of America. I don't want to single out rap music. Let's be honest. America's the most violent country in the history of the world, that's just the way it is. We're all affected by it. — Spike Lee

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. — Spike Lee

Mike Tyson is the most complex person I've ever met in my life. I've known Mike since 1986. We're both from Brooklyn. I didn't know him growing up, but once he became heavyweight champion, I knew him then. — Spike Lee

I consider Madonna a friend, and she sure knows how to work the publicity machine. Of course, I don't have breasts. If I did have, I'd be in the number one spot over Madonna. — Spike Lee

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. — Spike Lee

I don't think I'm a total pessimist, so I think you can find hope in all my films. — Spike Lee

It gets dangerous when you start allowing people to validate your work ... — Spike Lee

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

It has been my observation that parents kill more dreams than anybody. — Spike Lee

Always be mine, puppy please, puppy please. — Spike Lee

Because many advances have happened, we've lost the urgency (and that's just human nature) that we had before, when we couldn't vote, couldn't use mass transportation, or drink from the fountains. — Spike Lee

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

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. — Spike Lee

A lot of times, we censor ourselves before the censor even gets there. — Spike Lee