We've always been proactive in having mentoring programs, having internships, trying to work with the unions so they can encourage more people of color getting into them.

We decided to use digital video because we were dealing with the medium of television, and it gave us that video look. Plus, we didn't have a lot of money, and many pages to shoot, and needed a lot of cameras to cover the show, when we were doing the numbers.

What Clinton did with Monica Lewinsky does not add up to Bush lying to the world, saying, Let's invade Iraq because they've got weapons of mass destruction. It just doesn't add up. The man cheated on his wife, but nobody died. Americans are not coming home in body bags because of that.

I live in New York City, the stories of my films take place in New York; I'm a New York filmmaker.

I just think that the unions realize they have to be more flexible. The people that live here want to work here, but if it's cost-prohibitive, people go elsewhere.

We knew we wanted to cast real rappers, but rappers who had something to say. So that's why you go to people like Mos Def, Canibus, and MC Serch. They understood exactly what it is. I like rap, it's just that gangsta rap I can't get with.

A lot of times you get credit for stuff in your movies you didn't intend to be there.

We shot in PAL, because PAL gives you better resolution when you blow it up to 35mm. It was a learning curve, as we'd never shot basically a whole film like that. The stuff you see, we shot in Super 16, to get a different look.

Violence is a part of America. I don't want to single out rap music. Let's be honest. America's the most violent country in the history of the world, that's just the way it is. We're all affected by it.