Surprises are good. I'm not of the thinking where you tell the audience everything. Sometimes I don't even want to see the trailers. You see the trailer, you've seen the movie.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Do you find this...distracting?

Souls from the same star find it impossible to resist dancing to the tune of inevitability.

In my youth, it was my good luck to have a few good teachers, men and women, who came into my head and lit a match.

If we cannot now end our differences at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.

I run four miles most days, at about 8:00 to 8:15 pace. It's totally relaxed.

Time is inelastic and inflexible. Time is indispensable. No achievement is possible without time.

of all the foolish Fears of Humankind, Fear of the Future is by far the most foolish.

I am filled with humidity.

Be magic choose and believe that you can do anything you set your mind to believe. We are who we choose to be.

The most phlegmatic dispositions often contain the most inflammable spirits, as fire is struck from the hardest flints.