I think that truth is stranger than fiction, and it's nice to know the people you're making a movie about.

I like when people get really close to the paintings, when they can't really get away from them, I like them to operate in that way on the viewer.

It doesn't matter what I think I am, it matters what I do.

Nobody is perfect. I don't think it's the most scathing indictment of anybody. It's pretty innocuous. [Miral] is just the story of one family and one girl, living in that part of the world, and that's what goes on over there. I thought that maybe it would be informative and useful for people to know more about it.

Many people say to me, "I saw [Miral] and it really stayed with me. I woke up the next day and really thought about it, and have been thinking about it for awhile." That was my goal.

Can I find a poetic that can be subversive enough to grab people in some subliminal way, to where they feel that they are altered and have had an experience that belonged to them?

My compulsion is to create things.