Top 100 Quotes & Sayings by Rick Famuyiwa

For me growing up when hip hop was forming and maturing and coming into its own, I just felt I was a part of something really exciting. I was a part of it as a consumer.

The biggest part of what Anita Hill did was take away the stigma of coming forward, and it took a lot for her to do that. We don't have these conversations, because of the fear that people won't believe you or you'll get attacked if you come forward. She came forward anyway and continued to tell her story.

In high school, I was into a lot of different stuff, and I did ride skateboards.

Good or bad is what we tend to want to affix to people, but we're all complicated.

I feel like geek is about obsession. I feel like I geek out on certain things and that just means it's a mad devotion or obsession to something.

I felt like I was Ferris Bueller. I wanted to be those kids in 'The Breakfast Club.'

I think 'The Wood' was probably more concerned with the parts of Inglewood that aren't usually seen on film - the areas that were middle-class, or upper-middle-class - and that idea that these worlds do exist, and should be accepted as part of Inglewood itself.

I was in high school and college as hip-hop was really sort of coming into its own as a, you know, creative force, as a sort of cultural voice. And it really spoke to me.

Now being 41 and looking back on my career... It became natural for me to revisit Inglewood and to revisit the coming-of-age movie, but not wanting it to feel like a period piece completely about nostalgia but wanting it to feel like something that was relevant today and also forward-looking.

These actors who were in 'Dope' are the actors I want to continue to collaborate and make films with from here on out.

As a black man working in the business, it's a challenge sometimes to get some of these things and these stories told when they don't quite fit in a box or convention of what people expect of you or what you should be telling.

Lots of people knew who Kevin Hart was a decade before he hit it big.

I always say it's hard to cast an African-American film sometimes because those kinds of actors just aren't out there.

DC is the foundation of what we all know about comic books and heroes. They've had great storytellers, great illustrates, as a part of that tradition.

We'll always be re-examining how we relate to each other in terms of race and gender, in terms of power and access.

I grew up on Spielberg and Lucas. That was sort of what inspired me to make movies.

Broadway doesn't mean anything in Los Angeles.

That's the one drawback of trying to keep up with technology, is that it changes quicker than films can come out.

I consider 'Dope' a part of the new mainstream.

I don't know, my parents were pretty open about a lot of things, especially my mom. And any kind of little crazy thing I was into, she was very supportive of. You know, whether it was BMX bike racing or being in the Boy Scouts or surfing or anything else, she always seemed to sort of support it.

'The Wood' was sort of like 'American Graffiti' for me in a lot of different ways.

In many ways the film business is behind what's going on culturally. We are a world that is becoming more diverse and there's no going back.

What should be driving the conversation is: What's the story? What's the movie about? Is it a compelling story? And if it is, then you make it regardless of the color of the people behind or in front of the camera.

There's a generation that doesn't care if Tom Cruise is at the top of the movie. They want authenticity.

I think Black cinema is thought of in small terms. That's where most of the problems come from. When there's a film that has success, like in the '90s with the crime hood films; when one of them does well, it becomes the replication, or there's a romantic comedy that breaks out, it becomes a singular way of looking at it.

But at the end of the day, the lottery of birth shouldn't determine your value to the world.

I'm probably going to be ashamed to say this... It was a Sir Mix-a-Lot album. I think I was 12, 13. I had just enough money for the 'My Posse's on Broadway' single, so I bought that single. That was the first thing I bought with my own money.

You can't control where you are born, and when you're growing up, until you've seen something else, you're just living your life.

I wanted to try and change the idea of what we call mainstream. So many times what we call mainstream is upper middle class white suburbia. And anything outside of that is considered niche.

I think the younger generation's view on race is slightly more evolved. It's a category far down on the list of how they see themselves.

When I watch films and it becomes just about the reference and not necessarily a flow with how people naturally speak, that's when you're just saying, 'Okay, I'm trying to be cool and show off.'

We all would shudder if what we did, no matter what, in our 20s and early 30s were publicly displayed on a national stage.

When you're young, you sort of have an idea that this is how it's always gonna be as a filmmaker. And then you have the ups and downs of trying to get your art created in an industry that doesn't traditionally make films with you and people that look like you behind the camera.

As filmmakers and as actors, you have to find truth.

This whole thing with Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas happened during my first year of college. It was a cross-section of race and politics and gender that I feel is still going on today.

I've always felt that 'Dope' is a big movie in a little package.

For those of us who grew in the early hip hop era, that music shaped us in a way to be in a position to express ourselves.

All films are a challenge and they are a harder challenge when dealing with characters of color.

I don't know if I've seen in the Constitution where it says if there's an election year, then we take a break until after for us to do the business of the American people.

People come to L.A. and they expect to see a ghetto like the projects, but that's not the way it's set up. Inglewood, in particular, is the furthest thing from a ghetto. It's a middle-class community, but it's gotten a bad rap over the years... because of 'Grand Canyon' and 'Pulp Fiction' and other films.

We've all seen these projections of how society is going to look in 50 years. We're all going to have to deal with each other culturally.

I remember growing up watching John Hughes movies and watching these white kids from suburban Chicago. I connected to them even though I didn't live in their environment.

In many ways, a teaser trailer these days has just become a short version of the full-length trailer, as opposed to something that grabs you and teases you and makes you go, 'Whoa, what is this?'

I met Forest Whitaker on 'Our Family Wedding' and we struck up a real bond and friendship.

Wedding films are always about the differences between people. But they haven't quite dealt with African-Americans and Latinos.

Gangs are a part of living in Los Angeles, but you can exist in Inglewood or Culver City or anywhere else, without joining one.

I've been a fan of Wendell Pierce for a very long time. He was in one of my early movies and he brings such a level of heart and humanity to his roles.

Kendrick Lamar is from Compton, but his Compton and how he expresses that is completely different than NWA and Eazy-E even though they were from the same environment.

I will continue to look for opportunities to tell stories that speak to a fresh generational, topical and multicultural point of view.

It wasn't that long ago that I was coming up, but it feels almost ancient that you had to go to the library and you had 'World Book Encyclopedias.'

As a kid who grew up in Inglewood, California during the Showtime era, I'm so happy to help bring the story of Earvin 'Magic' Johnson to the screen. This project is a convergence of so many things that excite and interest me as a filmmaker.

The thing you gotta understand about L.A. is that everything is suburbia. Los Angeles isn't set up like San Francisco or New York.

Inglewood is a microcosm of Los Angeles. It's a city by the airport. It's the first city when you're coming into L.A., and the last city when you leave.

It would have been more comfortable for us as a society if Anita Hill wasn't as intelligent, poised, and credible as she was.

Magic has lived an extraordinary life as a champion athlete, passionate activist, and highly successful entrepreneur. The impact of Magic's life on the game of basketball and beyond is undeniable.

When I was approached by Warner Bros. and DC about the possibility of directing 'The Flash,' I was excited about the opportunity to enter this amazing world of characters that I loved growing up, and still do to this day.

I'm first generation American, and my parents were both from Nigeria.

I want 'Flash' to reflect the world we live in.

I was a political science major before I transferred into film school.

I think we've now gotten to this point where we're growing more and more distrustful of our institutions, be they government or corporations or otherwise.