It gets dangerous when you start allowing people to validate your work.
Interpretation
Dependence on others' validation can jeopardize your creative freedom and integrity.
Spike Lee's quote warns against the perils of seeking external approval for one's work. When individuals begin to prioritize the opinions of others over their own creative instincts, they risk losing their unique voice and authenticity. This dependence can lead to compromise in their work, resulting in a loss of passion and innovation, as well as potential criticism that could deter them from pursuing their artistic vision.
In practice
During a speech at a creative arts conference, a speaker might use this quote to encourage artists to trust their instincts.
I think that anyone who lives in New York, who's lived here, who's spent any time here, knows that it's basically a love-hate relationship, you might say. Even though I still think it's the greatest city in the world and I wouldn't live anywhere else, there're still things about it one doesn't like. The love far outweighs the negative.
There's an unwritten law that you cannot have a Jewish character in a film who isn't 100 percent perfect, or you're labeled anti-Semitic.
The truth is I've been doing Kickstarter before there was Kickstarter; there was no Internet. Social Media was writing letters, making phone calls, beating the bushes.
All directors are storytellers, so the motivation was to tell the story I wanted to tell. That's what I love.
Because many advances have happened, we've lost the urgency (and that's just human nature) that we had before, when we couldn't vote, couldn't use mass transportation, or drink from the fountains.
It comes down to this: black people were stripped of our identities when we were brought here, and it's been a quest since then to define who we are.
I never had a plan. I have to say, I'm very shocked when people start a company and say, 'In five years I want to launch a perfume, or in 10 years I want to have this.' How can you know?
An exceptional company is the one that gets all the little details right.
Money begets money. If you don't have that, you wait around to be hired by somebody at the mercy of others. If you have that money in your hand, you desperately try to make the best use of it and move ahead. And that's generating income for yourself.
Going to work for a large company is like getting on a train. Are you going sixty miles an hour or is the train going sixty miles an hour and you're just sitting still?
Success is like a mountain in front of you that keeps growing. If you're not careful, it will take up your whole life.
Entrepreneurs make fast decisions and move forward knowing that at best 70% of their decisions are going to be right. They move the ball forward every day. They are quick to spot their mistakes and correct.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.