Mira Nair

“I grew up in a small town in India, but through books I knew the world.”

“I am at home in many cultures. I live actively in three continents and I've done that for most of my life, so I just make films as I see the world, and that happens to speak to people. I do things that I want to do.”

“With Vietnam, the Iraq War, so many American films about war are almost always from the American point of view. You almost never have a Middle Eastern character by name with a story.”

“We have not learned the lessons of 9/11. This wrongful suspicion, racial hatred, and profiling is what I keep seeing.”

“I think films have to reach people and really grab them. That's what I hope to do when I make a film - to get under your skin and really make you think about something, and have a transporting time that takes you somewhere.”

“Every film is a political act; it's how you see the world.”

“I listen to Ustad Vilayat Khan's 'Raga Khamaj' and 'Raga Jaijaiwanti' virtually every morning, a lot of Abdullah Ibrahim, Michael Kiwanuka, Savages, and contemporary Ugandan pop.”

“I am still attracted to stories about people who are considered to be on the outside of society. I still seek inspiration from those stories.”

“I think I am kind of put on this Earth to speak of being between worlds in my films.”

“If we don't tell our own stories, no one else will.”

“In our house we say 'adolescence' is a western word. We don't believe in it.”

“I often begin movies with music in my head; it's a very important dimension to me. Not just the music itself, but how to use music in film: when and how and subtlety. I don't like to be too sweet in my stories, and I like the abrasive clang, the contrasting of sounds and cultures.”

“Either you're this, or you're that: either you're - if you're a Pakistani, you're a terrorist; if you're an American, you might be a militarist. Those kind of prisms that we see each other through are really stultifying, and they don't often show the complexity and the incredible warmth and encompassing of the world.”

“It took me three years to learn to dress in the American way, especially in winter. That was just like me. I barely wear socks even now.”