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We've got to turn this backward thinking around where ignorance is championed over intelligence. Young black kids being ridiculed by their peers for getting A's and speaking proper English: that's criminal.

Spike Lee

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Spike Lee
Age: 67
Born: 1957
Born: March 20
Actor
Film Actor
Film Director
Film Editor
Film Producer
Mascot
Screenwriter
Television Actor
Television Producer
Atlanta
Georgia
Sheldon Lee
Shelton J. Lee
Shelton Jackson Lee
Mars Blackmon
Black
Criminals
Kids
Speaking
Around
English
Championed
Young
Intelligence
Ridiculed
Thinking
Ignorance
Backward
Turn
Peers
Getting
Criminal
Turns
Proper

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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.
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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.
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American slavery was not a Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It was a holocaust. My ancestors are slaves. Stolen from Africa. I will honor them.
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Making films has got to be one of the hardest endeavors known to humankind.
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Everybody does what they want to do for their own specific reasons.
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Since the days of slavery, if you were a good singer or dancer, it was your job to perform for the master after dinner.
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Those that'll tell don't know, and those that know won't tell.
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I may have been born yesterday, but I stayed up all night.
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It gets dangerous when you start allowing people to validate your work.
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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.
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I've always tried to - when I've been able to - support young artists, no matter what medium.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I think if people looked at my body of work, they'd see a great breadth of work.
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You have to do the research. If you don't know about something, then you ask the right people who do.
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'25th Hour,' like a lot of my films, takes place in New York City. I've been very fortunate to make films in the city that I live. I mean, it's great going home at night instead of being on location.
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