Roland Joffe

“Much of Indian science seems intuitive and not bound by the rigid thinking of classical scientists.”

“Eventually, the tribe developed so much confidence in me that they invited me to be their chieftain.”

“I've never wanted to do something where I'd berate the audience.”

“I try to address my audiences intelligently. The man in the street counts, but sometimes he forgets that he counts.”

“They suggested I should introduce an element of reincarnation in the story. At first, I thought that was silly. But then, this whole time dimension began to fascinate me.”

“Making the City Of Joy gave me the best political education of my life. It became a wrestling match between an Englishman who had gradually ceased to be a Marxist, and a culture that was becoming more Marxist by the day.”

“I like DVDs so much - it's such a better format than VHS.”

“I think a film should have a gestation period of at least two or three years.”

“When you look at our world, the truth is that we're all under the influence of politics.”

“The actor is concerned with his own bit of it, but the director's somehow trying to work the whole thing into a much bigger picture. It's like conducting an orchestra.”

“In India, one has to plan according to the monsoons.”

“Even if we don't know it or aren't aware of it, politics and philosophy are really what make our up lives.”

“Conventionally, one looks at history as something of the past. But after Einstein, who knows what is in the past and what is in the present?”

“If you spend a whole afternoon just eating popcorn and watching football, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But if that's all you do, you get swept along with the tide, without any idea of where you're going.”

“Good directing is about getting the performance to be just what's right for the movie.”

“I like cinema audiences. I respect them, and I talk to them just like I would anybody I know.”

“I simply wanted to state that during this little slice of history, this is what happened and these were the good sides of it, these were the more dangerous sides of it, and this was the result.”

“I think that will be a lot of fun for audiences to get the same stream of consciousness that was going through my head at the time. It was very exciting to suddenly recall what I was feeling at the time.”

“Sitting down to a meal with an Indian family is different from sitting down to a meal with a British family.”

“If the movie's well made and it's about things that count, people will ultimately see the depth in it.”