I believe in storytelling, not story-selling. I want people to believe the characters are real. So I'm a realist.

I think most Muslims are incredibly upset with the state of America's foreign policy today and the state of the world.

I think people need to see on both sides. Seeing how the people in the Palestinian Territories can't move around - it's a maze now, with the wall, the road blocks and everything else. It takes you hours to get from one person's house to your job or to a friend or even to the hospital if someone's hurt. Then you go into Israel and see in Tel Aviv, where they have 12-18 bomb threats a day, which are real. It completely disrupts their life. Or Sderot where bombs are falling daily from the sky fired by Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

Well, even to this day, if I smell a Big Mac, I'm like Pavlov's dog. My mouth starts watering immediately, like, 'Man, that is so good,' but I can't take a bite of it.

You come downstairs, turn off the TV, and then and your son says, 'Daddy, I want to get that wrestling set, and all the pieces are sold separately.' The minute he quotes a commercial verbatim, that's when he's had enough TV.

"Mansome" was one of those projects where it was a great change to do something fun and look at the subject in an engaging way. My next film is not going to be about pedicures.

The advice I give to every filmmaker is you have to be tenacious. You can't give up.