Spike Lee Quotes

Television, although It's in steep decline, still occasionally gives voices to people who don't have voices.

It matters whether women sit at the table. No one speaks up for you when you are standing outside with your nose pressed up against the glass. You cannot window-shop for power.

I love the power of celebrity because you can give voice to the voiceless.

The purpose of influence is to speak up for those who have no influence.

An expert is someone who is capable of articulating the interests of people with power.

If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu.

The most important thing my grandfather taught me was that the most noble way to use your skills, intellect and energy is to defend the marginalized against those with the greatest power - and that the resulting animosity from those in power is a badge of honor.

I know there are a lot of people out there who have the best intentions but not the voice, so it's about people like me to give them a voice and hear their ideas.

I want to speak for people that may not feel like they're being spoken for at the moment. And I want to make a connection between the world around us and the charts.

Power is not of a man. Wealth does not center in the person of the wealthy. Celebrity is not inherent in any personality. To be celebrated, to be wealthy, to have power requires access to major institutions.

Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves.

I'm not going to change the world overnight. It's one person at a time, and hopefully they're people in positions of power who can help people get in those roles and really, truly embrace colorblind casting.

If you're not at the table, you're on the menu.

My opinion's no more important than anyone else's. It's just that I have the ability to have access to more ears when I speak because of my job.

I think being gay and gay people are the most wonderful things in the world. I wish all of us could have the power and pride to benefit from what is rightfully ours. Why isn't there an enormous building in Washington called the 'National Association of Lesbian and Gay Concerns' to lobby for us?

There is this power that comes with being famous.

I think a responsibility comes with notoriety, but I never think of it as power. It's more like something you hold, like grains of sand. If you keep your hand closed, you can have it and possess it, but if you open your fingers in any way, you can lose it just as quickly.

I tend to focus on young people and on giving a voice to groups of people who don't normally get their voices heard.

At the end of the day, what I have is the power to give a louder voice to people who have issues, questions and problems.

There are stories I'd like to tell, I'd like to see, and they're not getting made. These stories are beyond the experience of the people in power. They don't understand it, so they're frightened of it.

In creating my YouTube videos, I don't want to speak for my audience and the people I represent; I want to amplify their voices.

Each one of our ideas should benefit the people with less power than us.

The essence of American politics consists of the manipulation of populism by elitism.

Go out and speak for the inarticulate and submerged.

[The test of government] ... is not how popular it is among the powerful and privileged few, but how honestly and fairly it deals with the many who must depend upon it.