somewhere in the midst of his neverending “black filmmaker” controversy in the late 80’s, spike lee came to speak at UT austin while i was a student there. everyone mobbed him and afterwards they fawned all over him, asking stupid obvious questions—but i didn’t. i was reserved, polite and brief. my reward? a bit of a chat and an autograph wherein he wrote something that referred to our conversation.

it taught me a lot about how to deal with famous people (ignore them and they’ll gravitate towards you)—and how to behave if i ever became one (maintain privacy at all costs).