Sean Baker Quotes

Rap is supposed to be about keeping it real and not relinquishing your roots in the community. Without that, it's just posturing. Somebody who claims to speak for the 'hood don't need no private jet.

An organization which claims to speak for the needs of a community ... must speak in the tone of that community, not as somebody else's buffer zone.

I'm from outside most of these worlds I'm focusing on, and I feel there's an ethical approach to making these kinds of films. My biggest fear is that if you paint your characters in, you could be doing them wrong.

I always want to tell the truth. It doesn't have to be a pretty truth, and it doesn't have to be a life-changing and life-threatening truth like 'Chi-Raq.' But I want to tell someone's truth in an effort to inspire people to see themselves reflected on the screen.

I represent my community, and I represent my people. And I've got to be honest if something seems questionable.

In a world of lies and liars, an honest work of art is always an act of social responsibility.

That artists are called to be more responsible and 'true' is a tip of hat to their power.

The work that I feel is most authentically mine is the one that is my first reaction, the first thing that feels like the truth. In aggregate, those choices, those series of decisions, create your point of view, your visual language.

I generally only paint people I know, I'm not a flatterer really.

You make your first album, you make some money, and you feel like you still have to show face, like 'I still go to the projects.' I'm like, why? Your job is to inspire people from your neighborhood to get out. You grew up there. What makes you think it's so cool?

If all I ever wrote about was inner city freaks, I think it would be dishonest.

People want to know if I have a moral standpoint that they should be picking up on, and the truth is, I don't. I don't want people to think that I'm trying to tell them to feel a certain way. I think that's cheap filmmaking.

We artists have the dignity to tell the truth to the people, unlike politicians.

I feel some kind of duty to be really, really honest as a writer. The same is true of my songwriting.

I cannot flinch from saying such things in public. As a Representative of the People I am duty bound to do so. Justice cries out to me not to dissemble.

Every time you do a true story - and I've done a few - you have to look in the mirror and say, 'That's close enough. I'm comfortable with this.' You're always going to compress time; you're going to change the order of things. But I don't think you want to tell a big lie. You want to think that you're embracing the truth.

We have to reflect the world that we live in.

I'm not gonna force something or fake something to try to get more black people at my shows. I'm not gonna do some big hip-hop crossover.

A major focus of 'Reality Hunger' is appropriation and plagiarism and what these terms mean. I can hardly treat the topic deeply without engaging in it. That would be like writing a book about lying and not being permitted to lie in it.

I believe I've got to speak up for my people.

I want people to know the truth. That's what drives me. That there is truth in the world to know, and once you know it, you have a responsibility to share it.

Look, yes, I'm a Muslim woman and I want to bring my community to the table, but I also want to make sure that I'm not being tokenized.

I don't do all the things I say I do in my songs, but nobody does.

It feels dangerous when people say, 'Oh, Sean Baker focuses on marginalised people.' And offensive. As if I'm standing there with my planner thinking, 'OK, where's the next marginalised group I can make a movie about?'

Trump gives public service a bad image. It's not about flash, it's not about wealth, and it's not about hairstyle. It's about doing something for people and being an advocate for the community you represent.