Rick Famuyiwa Quotes

In America one drop of black ancestry makes you black.

The state of female artists is very good. But the very definition of art has been biased in that 'art' was what men did in a European tradition and 'crafts' were what women and natives did. But it's actually all the same.

There are a few directors as a young person where I was kind of like, 'Well, these are a sure bet.' The Coens, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson.

Being on a Paul Thomas Anderson film, the best decision an actor can make is to listen to Paul Thomas Anderson. Because he's probably not going to steer anyone in the wrong direction. I would always say go with your gut on any other movie set, but with Paul, I would say go with Paul's gut.

Growing up in London, with a hippie mom, I don't know that I'm most people's definition of what a black person is. I'm mixed, yes, but in the world I'm defined as black before I'm defined white. I've never been called white.

People want to classify and say, 'OK, this is a gangster film.' 'This is a Western.' 'This is a... ' You know? It's easy to classify and it makes people feel comfortable, but it doesn't matter, it doesn't really matter.

I always give the example, if you turn on the radio today, black radio, Lenny Kravitz is not black. Bob Marley wasn't black: in the beginning, only white college stations played Bob Marley.

Many people believe that determining who is 'black' is rather easy, a task simplified by the administration of the one-drop rule. Under the one-drop rule, any discernible African ancestry stamps a person as 'black.'

Society wants to categorize everything, but to me it's all African-American music.

I'm black because that's the way the world sees me.

I don't make a division between an art film and commercial art.

So I am getting a little bored with defining one type of film as American and the other European or from somewhere else because the division is no longer true.

I am black, and there's no getting around that, but being black doesn't define every aspect of my life.

We talk too much of black art when we should be talking about art, just art. Black composers must be free to write rondos and fugues, not only protest songs.

I want people to see my heart, what I feel - not as one of America's best black actors but as one of the best actors.

I've worked with David Lynch since I was 17, and working with him is home and family; being around Alexander Payne is home and family, Jonathan Demme. There are directors... Robert Altman, Paul Thomas Anderson... They are directors where I create homes.

When I was growing up, anyone who wasn't white was black. It meant all of us. Though when I was at university, we started to be called Asians.

We are - as artists, we are racialized through genre and called black - without being called black - through genre.

I've never seen Ralph Lauren, Rick Owens, or Raf Simons described as white designers. They are just designers.

It really upsets me that the media insists on turning 'Do the Right Thing' or 'Boyz N the Hood' into 'black films.' They are American films. They may open the window on the black experience, but they had things to say to everybody. That's why they were so successful.

I'm sorry if you're partly black you're partly black. You're not fully black.

A lot of people decide, if you're mixed, you're black. And so they try to force you to choose a culture.

Most so-called 'black' people do not feel themselves at liberty to simply turn off or ignore their allotted racial designation, whether they would like to or not.

Is there such a thing as black art? Or are there just artists who are black?

Have I had experiences by other people identifying me as black and behaving towards me as black? Yes. Just for as long as maybe somebody who was born categorised as black? No.