Spike Lee Quotes

I became a film director, but I wasn't successful with my first couple of films, so I had to turn to becoming a film critic to make a living.

I wasn't the kind of kid like Spielberg or Lucas who knew to go to film school. I didn't know at 12 what I was going to do; it took me until I was about 23. I studied journalism in college, but after school, I got a job in public television and I never worked as a journalist for one moment.

There was always a part of me that wanted to be an old-time director. But I couldn't do that. I'm not a pro.

I love making independent movies, and that's pretty much what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my years.

After I left college, I went to work at the Royal Opera House in London, which became a real catalyst for me because it made me realize that I was interested in cinema and in the way life is thrust at you. So I started making films.

For me, there was never an end game for becoming a director.

One fantasy is that I just do a Don Roos movie every year if that's possible. If he'd have me.

I always knew I wanted to be in films, but I did not know exactly what I wanted to do.

Once I started working as an assistant director, I just realized very quickly that working on a film set was just a perfect fit for me.

I left Norway after high school and moved to Manhattan and went to film school in Manhattan. That's when I really found out that this was my calling and what I wanted to do.

I was 19 or 20 when I was confused whether to take up films as a career. At that juncture, I enrolled in an acting workshop and then eventually realised I was destined to be in films.

I just remember saying to myself that I'd much rather do movies than modeling, and that it was worth a try. I didn't really know anything about it. I hadn't seen many movies, or so-called, good movies. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with Star Wars and Night of the Living Dead. When I got more curious about the movies, I thought they were something you had to learn about and go to school for and read every book.

I didn't have any idea that I would be able to have a career in film.

Life came in and put me in front of the camera before I could really make a decision, but I think I probably would have gravitated to film.

I was always writing scripts, and I had made several shorts, before and after film school. But I worked a variety of temp positions over the years.

In a weird way, when I was looking back, I didn't know I was going to be a director until I was.

Once a month the sky falls on my head, I come to and I see another movie I want to make.

Although I did end up trying out several different fields before committing to acting, I knew in the deepest part of heart that I wanted to be an actress.

I always loved movies, but I never thought I would presume to be a screenwriter and definitely not a director.

You don't make a movie, the movie makes you.

At the age of 15, a teacher had asked me what I wanted to do for a career, and without knowing why or even how I replied that I wanted to be a poet.

I loved cinema while growing up and, for the longest time, wanted to be a director.

I feel as if I became a documentary film-maker only because I had writer's block for four decades. There's no other good reason.

I had to work out where I was going, what type of films I wanted to make. For that reason, I decided to choose independent productions, less important roles, and I tried theater, too.

I spent 12 years doing different things in film trying to figure out the story I wanted to tell.