I tend to favour films that have multiple plot and story lines, multiple characters and ensemble pieces.

I collect names for characters. Names are valuable; they can be your first source of insight into a character.

I respect the audience's intelligence a lot, and that's why I don't try to go for the lowest common denominator.

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

I've been blessed with the opportunity to express the views of black people who otherwise don't have access to power and the media. I have to take advantage of that while I'm still bankable.

All directors are storytellers, so the motivation was to tell the story I wanted to tell. That's what I love.

A spine to my films that's become more evident to me is that many are about the choices people make, and the reverberations of those choices. You go this way, or that way, and either way, there's going to be consequences.