Indian - Director | October 15, 1957 -
'Salaam Bombay' didn't put a halo on the poor. Instead, it said that they will teach us how to live.
Mira Nair
LiveSaidTeachWillPoorUs
I grew up in a small town in India, but through books I knew the world.
WorldSmallSmall TownIndiaUp
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.
MusicMeSweetImportantMovies
If we don't tell our own stories, no one else will.
WillTellOwnStoriesOurElse
In America, we have so many movies and so much media about the Islamic world, the sub-continental world, but it's not a conversation, it's a monologue. It's always from one point of view. 'If we don't tell our own stories, no one will tell them' is my mantra.
WorldViewAmericaMediaMovies
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.'
HomeSadPeopleCityYouKnow
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.
CommunicationKnowledgeUnderstanding
My films, no one else will do.
WillElseFilms
Middle-class Pakistani cultural life is what I've seen, what I know - they're not all screaming faceless mullahs. It's disturbing that in American films, the character on the other side is not even named.
LifeCharacterAmericanKnowSide
Every film is a political act; it's how you see the world.
WorldPoliticalYouSeeActFilm
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.
MirrorPoliticsPeopleHelpLook
Humility is not a trait I often associate with America.
HumilityAmericaAssociateOften
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