Being a filmmaker is kind of like being a glorified spy.

It's incredible to see the creativity, beauty and hardships people capture when filmmaking is opened up and shared with the world.

I'll continue making films because I love being able to drop into other people's worlds. My goal is to be constantly learning.

I'm interested in characters that are complex people.

In making films, I'm constantly looking for people who are in conflict and who are going to surprise you and challenge you.

It's important in any project to remain focused.

I have actually been very fortunate to be able to make films on my own credit card without having huge funders behind me dictating how the story should be told.

When I hear the words 'activist filmmaking,' I think of somebody who's an activist, who wants to prove a particular point.

You know, Arabs are critical of United States foreign policy, but they also associate the U.S. with democratic principles and opportunity.

Al Jazeera is demonized by the United States, yet in Egypt my father would be watching it.

I've discovered I can't make a film about people I dislike.

There is no rest for the humble except in despising the great, whose only thought of the people is inspired by self-interest or sadism.

Bethany Mead cringed against the stone wall of her cell. Greeves was guarding the female ward this night. She hated Greeves…

There is no more futile punishment than futile and hopeless labor.

The rich man who gives to the poor does not bestow alms but pays a debt.

Money is a good thing and it's obviously useful, but to work only for money or fame would never interest me.

The road to glory would cease to be arduous if it were trite and trodden; and great minds must be ready not only to take opportunities but to make them.

Laws or ordinances unobserved, or partially attended to, had better never have been made.

I don't like to make fluffy little songs, but now I want to make some light songs.

Be who you are, and go the whole way.

Require... electoral votes to be allocated in proportion to the popular votes