Critics like to build you up, tear you down, and then, if you're lucky, build you up again.

If you can't take a hit, you're not going to last long, that's for sure.

I like people to look like they're floating.

We’ve gone through the names—Negro, African American, African, Black. For me that’s an indication of a people still trying to find their identity. Who determines what is black?

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 always been this hocus-pocus or magical, mystical thing associated with the making of film that sort of psyches people out and makes them think that this cannot be done; that this is a craft that cannot be learned.

Racism in America absolutely exists - it is an issue. We need to fix it. We're a great country - probably the greatest country but we could be a hell of a lot greater.