Any film I've made, I've only really begun to understand in the cutting room. That's when the story shows itself to you, like a wreck coming out of the sea.

I've tried to stay out of the frame more as a director.

I want to tell stories about Europe - I feel profoundly European, I don't feel like an American.

I'm not saying that it's wrong to make huge Hollywood films but it's just a different kind of feeling, a different sort of pleasure.

Most of my films seem to be about people bewildered by the world around them, who don't fit into it and are trying to understand it.

The smallest act of kindness makes you more beautiful than any expensive dress or make up.

Never ever work! Do everything for fun. Remember, life is for joy!

Embrace life with hope than despair.

Parents drinking is the reason you came into the world, and if we didn't keep doing it then, by God, it would be the reason you went back out of it.

Every time I think that I'm getting old and gradually going to the grave something else happens.

You rarely achieve finality. If you did, life would be over, but as you strive new visions open before you, new possibilities for the satisfaction of living.

I'm of Arab background.

I'm a firm believer in my higher power havin' a plan, and he's never wrong, and he's not open to suggestions.

I don't think we should ever tell our enemy what our tactics are.

Religion has gotten a bad rap for good reasons. Often, there are a lot of people - women, LBGT, and others - you know, hierarchical monotheism has been a real source of a type of oppression.