230 Quotes by Spike Lee

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.

I get offered to do stuff where the money’s nice but it’s not something I want to do – I get offered a lot of commercials too.

You have to do the research. If you don’t know about something, then you ask the right people who do.

I am a hybrid. I do independent films and also do Hollywood films – I love them both.

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.

There’s a lot of Americans, black and white, who think that we’ve arrived where we need to be and nothing else needs to be done and affirmative action needs to be dismantled.

I used the principles of Kickstarter to make ‘She’s Gotta Have It.’ We filmed that in 1985 to 1986. The final cost was $175,000. I didn’t have that money. It was friends, grants, donations. We saved our bottles for the nickel deposit.

If you have a talented family, you should be shot if you don’t use them.

I am trying to stay away from this position of me “returning to my roots.” As if my roots are that I’m only comfortable working on low-budget, small films. That’s not the case at all.