Mira Nair

“I've been able to look at the world differently from three continents practically. I've always lived between India and the U.S. When I married Mahmood I became a daughter-in-law of Africa. That really changed my worldview. I can see it from so many perspectives.”

“We have three generations at home, including my father-in-law. I keep a very low profile, and a lot of things I do are very much with the family in mind. I have actually made films with the family around me.”

“New York City is home to so many people from so many places and the uniqueness of it is that you never feel a foreigner. English is almost hardly ever heard in the subway. In fact, it's weird.”

“I'm the bullheaded type, and I really don't give up if I fall in love.”

“From Vietnam's 'Deer Hunter' to Iraq, films are never about the person who has had his house destroyed.”

“I want to question what the outside is and who defines it. I often find those that are considered to be on the outside extremely inspiring.”

“As the director of a film, as the story teller, you have to keep your voice alive.”

“Once 9/11 happened, people who looked like me and whose children looked like us and whose husbands looked of a community, really were made to feel quite the other, and I thought that was impossible in a city like New York but I myself was witness to that.”

“We want the diversity of the world that is around us represented both in front of and behind the camera, and on our screens as a result.”

“It is shocking that the screen does not reflect the way the world is and the diversity in the world... What the world really looks like should be on screen, and it isn't.”

“I don't think boldness should be associated with showing off skin. It's not the basis of boldness.”

“The dignity of everyday life - the beauty of it, the attitude of it - is what I live around. And it is never on screen, and it is certainly never associated with Africa. If we see Africa at all, it is always used as a backdrop: a big blob of a continent rather than a specific street or a country or a place.”

“Every frame and every scene has to have an intention.”

“I look for the humanity in people, however big the politics or oppressive the situation may be, whether it's subsumed within a human being or between two human beings. I want to help us hold a mirror to ourselves.”

“My family is vital to me - just the sense of being surrounded by no pretension.”

“I dream of living off the land completely - in vain, because the monkeys eat everything.”

“'Salaam Bombay' didn't put a halo on the poor. Instead, it said that they will teach us how to live.”

“To make films, you have to have something to say. To have something to say, you have to be a student of life. And to be a student of life, you have to be feeding yourself with what life, politics, society, and your family fuels you with.”

“I am actually a resident of three worlds - of America, of India, and of Africa. I live in Uganda most of the year. It's extraordinary to have that worldview that is an expansive one rather than just looking at the world from where you sit.”

“'Queen of Katwe' is an absolutely true story. And it's wonderful. But it's not about saviors. Your only savior is yourself - but yourself with your community. It's never alone. You have to have someone who believes in you.”