Mira Nair Quotes

Never treat anything you do as a stepping stone. Do it fully, and follow it completely.

If we don't tell our own stories, no one else will.

Making films is about having absolute and foolish confidence; the challenge for all of us is to have the heart of a poet and the skin of an elephant.

What is really important to me is a sense of humour and a mischief about life. Life is just too boring otherwise.

It is because my roots are so strong that I can fly.

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.

Christmas lights may be the loneliest thing for me, especially if you mix them up with reindeers and sleighs. I feel alone. I feel isolated. I feel I do not belong.

We have to realize only in communication, in real knowledge, in real reaching out, can there be an understanding that there's humanity everywhere, and that's what I'm trying to do.

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.

I grew up in a small town in India, but through books I knew the world.

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

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

Humility is not a trait I often associate with America.

I know what it's like to be in one place and dream of another. I also know what it's like to feel that nostalgia is a fairly useless thing because it is stasis.

Creative freedom is an imperative for me, but it doesn't really exist in a Hollywood game.

Post 9/11, so much has changed in New York that it does not give you that homely feeling which it did before.

I grew up in a very small town which is remote even by Indian standards. I always dreamed of the world.

They say now in America that final cut doesn't mean anything. As Harvey Weinstein said to some film-maker, 'You can have final cut. I'll open your film in Arkansas.'

I've never sought to be on an A-list. I've done my own thing and my own thing has thankfully now brought me an audience.

I am an independent film-maker first and foremost. I have always cut my own cloth.

Truth is more peculiar than fiction. Life is really a startling place.

I want to question what the outside is and who defines it. I often find those that are considered to be on the outside extremely inspiring.

My films, no one else will do.

My family is almost exactly like the one in 'Monsoon Wedding'. We are very open, fairly liberal, loud people.

Never take no for answer, and try to make films that turn you on.

Every frame and every scene has to have an intention.

Bollywood actors are so set in what they want, and the way they want it. And why shouldn't they be? But it is not the same in Hollywood, because the love of the audience is not the same.

It's only at this age that I can say the word 'art' without flinching.

Americans are not used to being bombed in their beds, but if you come from anywhere outside America, it's not highly unusual.

In our house we say 'adolescence' is a western word. We don't believe in it.

It took me three years to learn to dress in the American way, especially in winter. That was just like me. I barely wear socks even now.

I listen to Ustad Vilayat Khan's 'Raga Khamaj' and 'Raga Jaijaiwanti' virtually every morning, a lot of Abdullah Ibrahim, Michael Kiwanuka, Savages, and contemporary Ugandan pop.

I love the idea that it doesn't take one person only to achieve your potential. It takes a village, it takes a community, a street, a teacher, a mother.