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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
Getting
Criminal
Turns
Proper
Black
Criminals
Kids
Speaking
Around
English
Championed
Young
Intelligence
Ridiculed
Thinking
Ignorance
Backward
Turn
Peers

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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.
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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.
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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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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 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.
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If we became students of Malcolm X, we would not have young black men out there killing each other like they're killing each other now. Young black men would not be impregnating young black women at the rate going on now. We'd not have the drugs we have now, or the alcoholism.
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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.
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I ain't Martin Luther King. I don't need a dream. I have a plan.
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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.
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It gets dangerous when you start allowing people to validate your work.
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A woman who is very secure in herself, what she's about, what she wants to do, who probably figures that she's a prize catch-sooner or later he's going to come around.
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I've got Sometimers. Sometimes I remember and sometimes I forget.
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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.
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I'm surprised that Hollywood and networks have not been diverse as other industries.
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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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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.
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Our greatness, our talent has never been the question. It's been a matter of grappling for control over what we do.
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Everything I do is always scrutinised. But that's all I'll say about that.
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'She's Gotta Have It' was shot in twelve days and two six-day weeks.
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