"I gathered myself and convinced myself that I was not a quitter"- When Spike Lee opened up about his bold method of battling failure

Spike Lee has arguably been one of the greatest filmmakers of the past few decades, with his work covering a variety of subjects, including racial tension, issues of the black community, urban crime, and poverty, among many others.

During this time, he has also achieved significant acclaim, winning an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and two Peabody Awards, among many others.

But even the best of the best have to battle failure, and Spike Lee is no different. In fact, once Spike Lee was so heartbroken when his movie did not work out, he almost decided to quit.

But the best are the best because they battle through adversity and Spike Lee did the same. The result was his acclaimed debut She's Gotta Have It, following which, the veteran director never looked back.

Discussing this brush with failure, Spike Lee told The Talks in 2019:

"A big pivotal moment was when I did this film called The Messenger and it did not work out and I was really thinking about quitting. I was thinking about it seriously. But I gathered myself and convinced myself that I was not a quitter and examined in my mind all the mistakes that I have made and said I’m not going to do those again. And the next film was She’s Gotta Have It."

He further discussed what failure felt like to him and how he managed to pull himself out of the limbo and into the history books of cinema.

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"Nothing could prepare you for that"- Spike Lee on failing

Failure, especially in professional fields, is not something that most people navigate well. It is among the hardest things that happen to most. For Spike Lee, a director who has since produced and directed over 30 movies, this was something even he was unprepared for.

After speaking about how he nearly quit before finding his way back, he answered what the failure felt like. Lee said:

"Nothing could prepare you for that. That is just something you have to go through on your own. Nothing can prepare you for failure, just like a broken heart. You gotta go through that shit, it is just part of living. I thought about folding, but I’m not a quitter. I’m not going to quit."

He further spoke about how he found his way back. One of the pivotal reasons behind his strength was his family, who always had his back. He also spoke in this interview about how a single failure never outweighs an entire body of work, something that the director has proved over his long and fruitful career.

He added:

"I’ve always felt that any intelligent person, if you really want to have a true assessment of the artist’s work, you have to look at their body of work. If somebody does a great first film, how do you know what their third film is going to be like? What kind of films are they going to be making 10 films down the line? That is why I think people need to be patient."

And the patience that Spike Lee showed paid off in the years that followed as he directed movies like Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), Malcolm X (1992), Crooklyn (1994), Clockers (1995), 25th Hour (2002), and BlacKkKlansman (2018), most of which were widely acclaimed across the world.

Spike Lee will also soon be back with his latest movie Highest 2 Lowest, which is an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's High and Low.