Dee Rees Quotes

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Dee Rees

Profession : Director

Birth : February 7, 1977

For me, like, obviously, I want to see myself onscreen.

Dee Rees

I want more images onscreen because when I was growing up, I think, like, that one kiss in 'The Color Purple' was the one thing that I had. Or 'The Watermelon Woman.'

Dee Rees

Creatively, I just like interesting characters. So straight, gay, or whatever - like, whatever, wherever the characters are coming from or their lifestyle.

Dee Rees

I'm interested in telling stories about characters that are interesting and who are challenging in some way, one that will make you think about them afterwards.

Dee Rees

I grew up listening to Mary J. Blige's music. When I initially met her, it was like, 'Oh, wow. I'm meeting this woman whose music was the soundtrack of my college years.'

Dee Rees

To me, if you can do the Wicked Witch live, you can play anybody.

Dee Rees

There's a lot of power in saying no to big things that you don't want to do in order to say yes to the kind of things that really inspire you.

Dee Rees

For me, Sundance always felt big. It's not the only way to make your way, but for me, it was definitely that critical link between struggling artist, kind of working on my own, to actually working professionally and being connected and being seen.

Dee Rees

My ultimate dream was just to be an auteur.

Dee Rees

I had this thing where I only wanted to work on original material, no adaptations, and obviously, that changed. I really wanted to have the resources and have the space and the time to tell stories that I've really cared about. I've kind of changed my approach, but I've gotten to do that, to tell stories that I really care about.

Dee Rees

The enemy is the system. And the system is made up of people, and we have a choice in that.

Dee Rees

In some communities it is - like, for me, coming out with my parents, they were not accepting; they were not understanding. So it depends. For kids in New York and L.A., maybe it's different, but for kids in Iowa, for kids in Tennessee, it's still something that's not really talked about.

Dee Rees

Going into a room and saying, 'I'm a black lesbian' - it's a strike against you.

Dee Rees

I still want to do features, but on my own terms.

Dee Rees

I can't put anything out that's not me.

Dee Rees

To have a simultaneous global audience as an artist is more than you could ever hope for.

Dee Rees

Filmmaking was the way I could write characters and not have to give them up to anybody.

Dee Rees

I had originally written 'Pariah' as a feature, and we shot the first act as a short film, and then we used the short as a marketing tool to fundraise for the feature.

Dee Rees

Our country is pathologically violent.

Dee Rees

We shouldn't be discriminating against each other. The whole 'light skin versus dark skin' is an idea we need to break down.

Dee Rees