SPIKE LEE QUOTES
American filmmaker (1957- )
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
Do the Right Thing
I swear before God ... and four more white people! This is the last time!
SPIKE LEE
Jungle Fever
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
interview, Cineaste, 1991
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
Spike Lee: That's My Story and I'm Sticking to It
I've never seen black men with fine white women. They be ugly. Mugly dogs.
SPIKE LEE
interview, Playboy, 1991
A lot of stuff that's on today is coonery and buffoonery, and I know it's making a lot of money ... and breaking records, but we can do better.
SPIKE LEE
"War Of Words: Tyler Perry Vs. Spike Lee", NPR, April 21, 2011
'Cause mo better makes it mo better.
SPIKE LEE
Mo' Better Blues
If you weren't fine, I wouldn't even bother with you.
SPIKE LEE
She's Gotta Have It
Baby, you're so fine, I'd drink a tub of your bath water.
SPIKE LEE
She's Gotta Have It
We grow up with white images all the time, in TV, in movies, in books. It's everywhere; you can't get around it. The white world surrounds us. What do white people see of black people? Look at the shit they have us do in movies: "Right on, jive turkey!"
SPIKE LEE
interview, Playboy, 1991
I don't think racism can be eliminated in my lifetime ... or my children's or grandchildren's. But I think it's something we have to strive for. I'm going to keep working toward that day coming.
SPIKE LEE
interview, Cineaste, 1991
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
interview, 1990
Those that'll tell don't know, and those that know won't tell.
SPIKE LEE
Do the Right Thing
Let me tell you the story of right hand-left hand. It's a tale of good and evil. Hate: it was with this hand that Cain iced his brother. Love: these five fingers, they go straight to the soul of man. The right hand: the hand of love. The story of life is this: static. One hand is always fighting the other hand, and the left hand is kicking much ass. I mean, it looks like the right hand--Love--is finished. But hold on, stop the presses; the right hand is coming back. Yeah, he got the left hand on the ropes now, that's right. Ooh, it's a devastating right and Hate is hurt. He's down. Left-Hand Hate KO-ed by Love.
SPIKE LEE
Do the Right Thing
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
interview, Cineaste, 1991
I may have been born yesterday, but I stayed up all night.
SPIKE LEE
Mo' Better Blues
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
"Fight the Power: Spike Lee on Do the Right Thing", Rolling Stone, June 20, 2014
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
Book of African-American Quotations
Black people can't be racist. Racism is an institution. Black people don't have the power to keep hundreds of people from getting jobs or the vote. Black people didn't bring nobody over in boats. They had to add shit to the Constitution so we could get the vote. Affirmative action is about finished in this country now. It's through. And black people had nothing to do with that, those kinds of decisions. So how can black people be racist when that's the standard? Now, black people can be prejudiced. Shit, everybody's prejudiced about something.
SPIKE LEE
interview, Playboy, 1991
I think it is very important that films make people look at what they've forgotten.
SPIKE LEE
Book of African-American Quotations