The United States is the best and fairest and most decent nation on the face of the earth.
Well, TV does a better job. In film, the justification has been that movies focused on stories or featuring people of color don't make money.
had two smaller scripts that I had written with full black casts. And people loved the scripts, but nobody would fund them. Those roles and stories are out there. But unless you have the money to finance movies on your own, you're beholden to others, and that is a very big limiting factor.
I figured out I wanted to tell stories in college. I'm an only child who moved around a lot growing up, and I really feel like it prepared me to be a storyteller - to make up stories and pretend to be every hero from every movie and TV show as a kid. So it was a natural progression.
When you start talking about movies of that size, they're trying to sell globally to foreign markets. So there is an economic question that can't be ignored, and that's a fair discussion to have. But maybe it's not the time to make that movie if you can't depict people accurately.
Being able to interact with [studio president] Kevin Feige and have him know who I am and know me as a person, and be able to then sit down and have a conversation about story with someone who's familiar and comfortable is invaluable.
This problem [of historical opportunities] compounds itself by limiting the number of people in the pipeline to attain the experience to do larger movies or get jobs so they can familiarize themselves with a studio head and get the opportunity to deliver and impress - or maybe direct a smaller movie. It will take a considerable amount of time to rectify. It's very difficult because it starts at the top.
In my heart there may be doubt that I deserve the Nobel award over other men of letters whom I hold in respect and reverence, but there is no question of my pleasure and pride in having it for myself.
Today I believe in the possibility of love; that is why I endeavor to trace its imperfections, its perversions.
If I've inadvertently become some sort of role model for failed comedians, then it's really backfired very badly on me.
I didn't know what I was. I didn't have a noun.