“I grew up in and identify with and that she works and exists in.”

I have many projects in various states of development. Some are on paper and some are in my head. But as I go on, I feel the need to be guided in my choices.

I gave him a bunch of ideas and then Vincent helped guide me and develop this particular film. I enjoy that rapport to have somebody else help guide me in my choices for the next film.

The poetic way of looking at it is which project is going to choose me as a director.

What really enthralls me is working with the actor and seeing where you can go with that. It’s in that exchange and that relationship.

My film (Black Venus) had been very emotionally draining and difficult because I had identified so much with the lead character, Saartjie Baartman.

The importance is getting to something truthful and in that moment can only be in that moment. I don’t like to use the word “improvise,” but it’s a continual writing of the film.

To use an image, making a film is like climbing a mountain or crossing an ocean. Every day has its challenges.

The writing of the script is a continual process. There’s the first draft and then many, many re-writes here and there.

This film [ Blue is the Warmest Color] actually is the result of me talking with my producer Vincent [Maraval].

I didn’t really think in terms of clichés or non-clichés.

When it comes time to make the scenes concrete and shoot them, I want the freedom for it to exist which means adding, subtracting or modifying.

I don’t come to work as an actor. There are many directors who can direct without ever having acted and do a great job and connect with their actors and lead them to excellent performances without themselves having had an acting background.

Every day, there’s that tension and the pressure. Each scene that you shoot is like getting to that next step, but there’s still that mountain to climb. So it’s not like one day is harder or one scene is harder. They are all equally challenging.

I grew up without a lot of money and my parents grew up with far less money. And that’s kept me in line. Really in line.

White hate crimes, white hate speech. I still try to claim I wasn’t brought up to hate. But hate isn’t the half of it. I grew up in the vast encircling presumption of whiteness.

Basically, as a kid I grew up to a lot of good music, and part of my appreciation for music, from being a small child, was appreciating Jamaican music.

I’m one with New York, and New York is one with me. I grew up there; there’s no escaping it.

I’ve never been really great at trusting anybody, just because of the way I grew up.

I grew up on the beach, now I live under the Hollywood sign.

I grew up in Brentwood, but I live now in Los Feliz.

I grew up with a single mom who was a waitress. We were on food stamps.