Quotes about Spike Lee

The first black girl book I fell in love with was most likely ‘Please, Puppy, Please’ by Spike Lee and Tonya Lee.

Spike Lee is obviously more stupid than anyone can be by accident.

Spike Lee really gave us a platform, men and women of color.

Spike Lee really gave us a platform, men and women of color.

Spike Lee gave me the greatest reaction to the fact that I was this athlete-meets-artist, because I think he saw that I was different. I learned that oftentimes, Spike directs in a sense that he might just stare at you and look at you in a telepathic way of communicating.

I got a call saying that George Lucas wanted to meet me. Of all the phone calls I’ve received – Oliver Stone wants to meet you; Spike Lee wants to meet you – that was the one call I never in a million years thought was going to happen.

On a Spike Lee set, everybody seems to want to be there and is motivated to work in unison and do the best they can.

I grew up with Woody Allen and early Spike Lee movies in which New York was such a specific character. The city has a certain vibe and beat which really informs your entire existence.

I look at the stories that Spike Lee tells… Great stories. Great director, great storyteller.

The thing about Spike Lee… that’s a deep experience to work with someone who is that intense and knows their vision that well. The character I play in ‘Red Hook Summer’ is super country and super loud. I suppose he is some version of myself.

‘Miracle at St. Anna.’ I was challenged by Spike Lee. When he offered me the film, he looked me square in the eye and said, ‘You start this film off and you end this film. I don’t want a dry eye in the theatre. Can you pull that off?’ He was dead serious.

I’m from New York, and yet I’ve done only one film executive-produced by Spike Lee and have never done a film that Spike Lee directed. I’ve never done a film that Keenan Wayans has directed, or Bill Duke.

The first black girl book I fell in love with was most likely ‘Please, Puppy, Please’ by Spike Lee and Tonya Lee.

It is fun, I learned, to stroll around with Spike Lee and to gauge other people’s reactions. Everyone recognizes him.

My heroes were people like Jim Jarmusch. Scorsese was my god. Spike Lee was exciting, doing exactly what we thought we were going to do: personal movies based in, and about, New York. My heroes were all participating in an economic model that was collapsing as I was finishing film school.

I like Spike Lee a lot. He’s incredibly gifted and I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves as a filmmaker.

When I started at Pratt, Spike Lee had his 40 Acres and A Mule studios down the street. You’d see Rosie Perez walking around going to Mike’s Coffee Shop. So it was this black bohemian.