All directors are storytellers, so the motivation was to tell the story I wanted to tell. That's what I love.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the idea that all directors create narratives, driven by their passion for storytelling.
In this quote, Spike Lee emphasizes that being a director is inherently about storytelling. It suggests that the core motivation for directors stems from a deep-seated desire to convey their unique visions and narratives, highlighting the love and passion that fuels their creative process.
In practice
This quote can be used in a film class to inspire students about the importance of storytelling in directing.
I think that anyone who lives in New York, who's lived here, who's spent any time here, knows that it's basically a love-hate relationship, you might say. Even though I still think it's the greatest city in the world and I wouldn't live anywhere else, there're still things about it one doesn't like. The love far outweighs the negative.
There's an unwritten law that you cannot have a Jewish character in a film who isn't 100 percent perfect, or you're labeled anti-Semitic.
The truth is I've been doing Kickstarter before there was Kickstarter; there was no Internet. Social Media was writing letters, making phone calls, beating the bushes.
It gets dangerous when you start allowing people to validate your work.
Because many advances have happened, we've lost the urgency (and that's just human nature) that we had before, when we couldn't vote, couldn't use mass transportation, or drink from the fountains.
It comes down to this: black people were stripped of our identities when we were brought here, and it's been a quest since then to define who we are.
I find with records, they become what they're going to become. They take on a power and a direction of their own. Part of making records is to honor that and not try to force it.
I wanted to invent some kind of American dance that was danced to the music that I grew up on: Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hart and Irving Berlin. So I evolved a style that certainly didn't catch on right away - but I had some good mentors in New York who encouraged me.
The character of the artist doesn't enter into the nature of the art
Living in a capital in Europe but still surrounded by mountains and ocean, my relationship to music was strongest walking to school and back. I would sing to myself and very quickly started mapping out my melodies to landscapes - at the time I just thought it was very matter of fact, a common thing to do.
I am like a moon that shines on an immense, unknown sea where ships never pass
Photography is a form of time travel.
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