Director

A lot of us feel that we are against the war; we are against profiling and are against what is happening. We are tired of war in every manifestation. American people do not all believe in what the government has been doing.

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.

The dignity of everyday life - the beauty of it, the attitude of it - is what I live around. And it is never on screen, and it is certainly never associated with Africa. If we see Africa at all, it is always used as a backdrop: a big blob of a continent rather than a specific street or a country or a place.

With Vietnam, the Iraq War, so many American films about war are almost always from the American point of view. You almost never have a Middle Eastern character by name with a story.

I dream of living off the land completely - in vain, because the monkeys eat everything.

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.

The film-school mantra is that if you don't tell your own stories, nobody will.

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

We have not learned the lessons of 9/11. This wrongful suspicion, racial hatred, and profiling is what I keep seeing.

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

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

I came from the school of cinema verite documentaries, which was: Do not manipulate reality as it was happening but create a narrative in the editing room.

You have to want to be in the company of those you're making films about.

I don't think boldness should be associated with showing off skin. It's not the basis of boldness.

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

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 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.

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 often begin movies with music in my head; it's a very important dimension to me. Not just the music itself, but how to use music in film: when and how and subtlety. I don't like to be too sweet in my stories, and I like the abrasive clang, the contrasting of sounds and cultures.

To make films, you have to have something to say. To have something to say, you have to be a student of life. And to be a student of life, you have to be feeding yourself with what life, politics, society, and your family fuels you with.