Top 100 Spike Lee Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Do the right thing.”

— Spike Lee

2. “It has been my observation that parents kill more dreams than anybody.”

— Spike Lee

3. “Power is knowing your past.”

— Spike Lee

4. “I ain’t Martin Luther King. I don’t need a dream. I have a plan.”

— Spike Lee

5. “When you love something it’s not a job anymore.”

— Spike Lee

6. “Fight the power that be. Fight the power.”

— Spike Lee

7. “It is really important that young people find something that they want to do and pursue it with passion. I’m very passionate about filmmaking. It’s what I love to do.”

— Spike Lee

8. “A woman who is very secure in herself, what she’s about, what she wants to do, who probably figures that she’s a prize catch-sooner or later he’s going to come around.”

— Spike Lee

9. “Those that’ll tell don’t know, and those that know won’t tell.”

— Spike Lee

10. “Don’t think that because you haven’t heard from me for a while that I went to sleep. I am still here, like a spirit roaming the night. Thirsty, hungry, seldom stopping to rest.”

— Spike Lee

11. “I’ve never seen black men with fine white women. They be ugly. Mugly dogs.”

— Spike Lee

12. “We grew up in a very creative environment and were exposed to the arts at a very young age, so it’s not a surprise that all of us are in some form of the arts.”

— Spike Lee

13. “I’ve got “Sometimers.” Sometimes I remember and sometimes I forget.”

— Spike Lee

14. “Parents kill more dreams than anybody.”

— Spike Lee

15. “You have to do the research. If you don’t know about something, then you ask the right people who do.”

— Spike Lee

16. “Music is, for me, a great tool of a filmmaker, the same way cinematography, the acting, editing, post-production, the costumes are. You know, to help you tell a story.”

— Spike Lee

17. “It gets dangerous when you start allowing people to validate your work...”

— Spike Lee

18. “If we became students of Malcolm X, we would not have young black men out there killing each other like they’re killing each other now. Young black men would not be impregnating young black women at the rate going on now. We’d not have the drugs we have now, or the alcoholism.”

— Spike Lee

19. “My people, my people, what can I say; say what I can. I saw it but didn’t believe it; I didn’t believe what I saw. Are we gonna live together? Together are we gonna live?”

— Spike Lee

20. “I may have been born yesterday, but I stayed up all night.”

— Spike Lee

21. “First of all, what in this world does not revolve around money? But money is a big part of film, unlike a lot of other art forms.”

— Spike Lee

22. “Any time you talk about the look of the film, it’s not just the director and the director of photography. You have to include the costume designer and the production designer.”

— Spike Lee

23. “I think black people have to be in control of their own image because film is a powerful medium. We can’t just sit back and let other people define our existence.”

— Spike Lee

24. “Stick around long enough, you’ll get some grace.”

— Spike Lee

25. “For me, I believe in God, God is real.”

— Spike Lee

26. “Critics like to build you up, tear you down, and then, if you’re lucky, build you up again.”

— Spike Lee

27. “I miss my brother. Prince was a funny cat. Great sence of humor.”

— Spike Lee

28. “All directors are storytellers, so the motivation was to tell the story I wanted to tell. That’s what I love.”

— Spike Lee

29. “I don’t think my films are going to get rid of racism or prejudice. I think the best thing my films can do is provoke discussion.”

— Spike Lee

30. “My grandmother lived to be 100 years old. Her grandmother was a slave, yet she was a college graduate in the Spellman class of 1917. She taught art for 50 years and she saved her Social Security checks for her children’s education.”

— Spike Lee

31. “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.”

— Spike Lee

32. “I think it is very important that films make people look at what they’ve forgotten.”

— Spike Lee

33. “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.”

— Spike Lee

34. “I think my work shows that I love women. I understand where these types of criticisms are coming from because black people have been so dogged out in the media, they’re just extra sensitive.”

— Spike Lee

35. “As a people we do not need anyone else’s stamp of approval.”

— Spike Lee

36. “What’s the difference between Hollywood characters and my characters? Mine are real.”

— Spike Lee

37. “If you can’t take a hit, you’re not going to last long, that’s for sure.”

— Spike Lee

38. “I’m just trying to tell a good story and make thought-provoking, entertaining films. I just try and draw upon the great culture we have as a people, from music, novels, the streets.”

— Spike Lee

39. “I had a great education. From kindergarten to John Dewey High School in Coney Island, I am public-school educated.”

— Spike Lee

40. “I live in New York City, the stories of my films take place in New York; I’m a New York filmmaker.”

— Spike Lee

41. “I don’t see any negativity with what Brad Pitt is doing with his Make It Right Foundation, or what Sean Penn is trying to do in Haiti.”

— Spike Lee

42. “I am very fortunate I can send my kids to private school, but everybody does not have the money. If you cannot get your kid in a good school today, your kids are going to be behind the eight ball.”

— Spike Lee

43. “Cause mo better makes it mo better.”

— Spike Lee

44. “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.”

— Spike Lee

45. “Most human beings will not stand in front of a stage and tell you about the bad things they did.”

— Spike Lee

46. “American slavery was not a Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It was a holocaust. My ancestors are slaves. Stolen from Africa. I will honor them.”

— Spike Lee

47. “I’m very careful about how I portray violence in my films. I do believe that violence, especially violent video games, are not a good thing for young kids.”

— Spike Lee

48. “Surprises are good. I’m not of the thinking where you tell the audience everything. Sometimes I don’t even want to see the trailers. You see the trailer, you’ve seen the movie.”

— Spike Lee

49. “A lot of times, we censor ourselves before the censor even gets there.”

— Spike Lee

50. “I am trying to stay away from this position of me “returning to my roots.” As if my roots are that I’m only comfortable working on low-budget, small films. That’s not the case at all.”

— Spike Lee