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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

For the Christian, humility is absolutely indispensable. Without it there can be no self-knowledge, no repentance, no faith and no salvation.

Writing will be like a journey, every word a footstep that takes me further into undiscovered land.

Patriotism is the opposite of selfish individualism.

Readers have actually changed the way I've done things, changed the course of my career even, about four or five times. Just from reader feedback.

We do not truly speak except at a distance. There is no word not severed.

I fear we are in danger of forgetting that to HAVE the Bible is one thing, and to READ it quite another.

I dont think anyone can get away from high school unscathed.

Rome wasn't built in a day, and neit'er was Syracuse.

When you get to see the world, it changes you. You realise that there are all kinds of people out there.

You never forget your first love.