I’m still pulled over… We were nominated for two Oscars for ‘Monster’s Ball,’ and I almost didn’t make the Oscars because I got pulled over in Beverly Hills. – Lee Daniels
When people don’t like the film, I can take a bullet. I don’t mind you talking about me, but I’m protective of my actors, because they bared their soul for me. – Lee Daniels
I want to see movies I can walk away from and say, ‘Wait, what happened there? Hold up, what did I just see? What?’ and then it connects to something that you personally, unequivocally know to be truth. – Lee Daniels
I’m not going to be labeled a black filmmaker. I am not here to just tell black stories. I’m here to tell all kinds of stories, musicals and dramas. – Lee Daniels
I see the world from a very specific perspective. It is how I grew up. It is what I am proud of, and I vocalize it. And for those who have not experienced my experience, it is odd, and it’s not mainstream. – Lee Daniels
I believe in life that you know that everything prepares you for the next thing – whether it’s a hit, whether it’s not a hit, whether it’s a… your failures are your accomplishments because it makes you prepared for whatever it is that you are going to do next. – Lee Daniels
I think this last film I finished, ‘The Butler,’ is the closest I will come to as a work-for-hire. – Lee Daniels
There are servers, and there are people that are served. There’s something contradictory about that in a democracy, certainly. – Lee Daniels
I think it’s very important that we don’t sound like militants. Often what we do is we give a comment, and because it comes across with passion, then we’re ‘angry black people.’ – Lee Daniels
I don’t know whether everybody likes the films that I do. I know that I love them, and I believe the way that I raise my kids that they will love them, and that’s what most important to me. – Lee Daniels
I don’t know what gives me more pleasure: watching my story unfold or going in and watching a room full of black people talking for me and writing words for black people. – Lee Daniels
That’s the gift ‘Precious’ has given me. You really think you’re telling a story about a fat black girl, and only fat black girls will understand it, and then you realize we’re all Precious. – Lee Daniels
I have twins that I didn’t want to have the life that I had. I didn’t have a great life growing up. – Lee Daniels
I have a very clear vision, and I come from film, where director is God, so if there’s a clash, it’s painful. – Lee Daniels
I want to go to places that are unexpected of me because people really think they have me pegged. – Lee Daniels
My partner, Danny Strong, came to me with this idea of telling a story about my life and merging that with music and the hip-hop world. He wrote ‘The Butler’ and originally wanted to do ‘Empire’ also as a movie. – Lee Daniels
I believe strongly that characters are five-dimensional, and they’re complicated, and life is complicated, and people are complicated. – Lee Daniels
I come from a family of domestics. I think most African-Americans of my age do. They were trusted by their bosses. I have met so many white people that spent more time with their nannies than they have with their own parents. – Lee Daniels
I want to learn. I want to stretch my muscles as a director and work under different circumstances. – Lee Daniels
I hate white people writing for black people; it’s so offensive. So we go out and look specifically for African-American voices. – Lee Daniels
I don’t read the reviews, the blogs, or anything else. Instead, I feel the audience when I show the film. – Lee Daniels
