I live in New York City, the stories of my films take place in New York; I'm a New York filmmaker.

First of all, what in this world does not revolve around money? But money is a big part of film, unlike a lot of other art forms.

I don't think I'm a total pessimist, so I think you can find hope in all my films.

A lot of times, we censor ourselves before the censor even gets there.

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.

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.

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.