We all know the power of film; we all know there's almost nothing more powerful than to see people on film that look and talk like you, like we do.

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.

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.

Humility is not a trait I often associate with America.

You know, the sad thing of post-9/11, which was of course horrific, was that the city in which I felt completely at home for two decades, suddenly people like us - brown people - were looked at as the 'Others.'

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

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