A biography for Lee Danielshasn’t been written yet.
“With TV, you're in people's houses every night. And you have so much time to tell stories. I don't know why I didn't do it before.”
“I think the father-son love story is a universal one which transcends color.”
“I've had all types of beautiful girls tell me that they ugly when they look in the mirror, as if it's someone else's reflection they see.”
“I don't read the reviews, the blogs, or anything else. Instead, I feel the audience when I show the film.”
“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.”
“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.”
“America is fickle. You never know what they're going to go for.”
“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.'”
“People enjoy making fun of people who are famous; they love putting people down.”
“Stars make money on real movies. They make big money on real movies. To come into my world, I've got some M&Ms and some potato chips, and I'm asking you to move furniture.”
“While I am not a musician, I love music. I have over 15,000 songs on my iPod. Everything from hard core rap to the soundtrack from the original 'Cinderella.'”
“I came to Hollywood to write and found out I don't have the attention span.”
“I didn't have the sensibilities of your ordinary filmmaker, let alone your ordinary African-American filmmaker. My heroes were John Waters, Pedro Almodovar, and actors that were part of that world.”
“There are servers, and there are people that are served. There's something contradictory about that in a democracy, certainly.”
“I'm always more comfortable and in a good place when I'm with friends because I know they trust me. I'm able to get great performances from people who trust me.”
“I've never done a studio movie, let alone worked for a network. Every one of my films has been independently financed.”
“My dad was a cop. My mom worked at various jobs - she worked as a homemaker, a bank teller, a bartender.”
“At 19, I was in the streets making money. I was surviving.”
“I went from off-off Broadway. I would direct plays in Baldwin Hills. Almost Tyler Perry-like, really trying to express myself in that and not really knowing how to, knowing acting in story, but not really knowing how to technically hold a camera.”
“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.”