I've been wanting to make a movie about the war in Sierra Leone, specifically, for more than 15 years.

I just have a hard time displaying things.

I'm the kind of person where you're never done, you just keep perfecting and perfecting and perfecting, or trying to fix things that drive you crazy. Often times when you watch a film, "if I could just get through this minute, I'll be fine." So I think I'm just hard on myself.

Every single substitute teacher growing up could not pronounce my name, so whenever someone pauses, I'm like, "Oh, that's me."

I think that one of the most exciting things about making films is the sort of reaching out to the world. It's as an ambassador. You realize the more you travel that you are a cultural ambassador for your own country. You never become more patriotic than you do living abroad.

I'm terrible at making titles. I never like the titles of my films.

It takes the wool from your eyes about how the world works, to show you that nothing's necessarily fair, and that you might have a hard life.