53 Quotes by Barry Jenkins

I worked for Oprah Winfrey for two years right out of college in 2004. I was a director's assistant on the film 'Their Eyes Were Watching God,' which Oprah produced.

Art is inherently political. Even trying to make a film that has nothing to do with politics is, in and of itself, a political act.

If you try to create something that everybody can relate to, you're gonna make something that nobody can relate to.

'Moonlight' changed me. To see people so moved by this movie inspires me to find something else to offer. And maybe the next one touches only five people or maybe just one person. To me, you know, that would still be worth it.

I think everybody can identify, you know, with this sort of struggle to decide for yourself who you are, you know, and what your place in life is.

It's interesting because I think class is a heavy, heavy part of 'Moonlight,' and I think, in a certain way, through the sum of all these parts, it's become a commentary on the black experience in America.

I'm very much a person of nurture over nature. When the world is not nurturing, it can really change a man.

Until 'Moonlight,' I had never seen one black man cook for another on screen. But I wanted the characters to be free of 'groundbreaking' or 'never before.' We were ascribed those things. They weren't the point.

As a writer, a blank page will humble the hell out of you. It always does, and it always will.