To be born again,' sang Gibreal Farishta tumbling from the heaveans, 'first you have to die. Ho ji! Ho ji! To land upon the bosomy earth, first one needs to fly Tat-taa! Takatun! How to ever smile again, if first you won't cry? How to win the darling's love mister, without a sigh?

If Woody Allen were a Muslim, he'd be dead by now.

I don't like books that play to the gallery, but I've become more concerned with telling a story as clearly and engagingly as I can.

I grew up in a family in which there was very little religion. My father wasn't religious at all. But he was really interested in the subject of, you know, the birth and growth of Islam. And he basically transmitted that interest to me.

What I found interesting writing a screenplay as opposed to writing a novel is not the obvious thing, which is having to pare everything down and find the kind of essence, the skeleton if you like, which can then be fleshed out by performance and cinematography.

Terror is glamour - not only, but also. I am firmly convinced that there's something like a fascination with death among suicide bombers.

I have been a film buff all my life and believe that the finest cinema is fully the equal of the best novels.