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

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

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.

Al Jazeera is one entity that everyone across the Arab world watches. Arabs are proud of that.

Wilderness is wise

It's not perfection that makes you beautiful, It's your imperfections

She was a femme fatale with creative license, and she was sharpening her pen just for me.

The main business of a lawyer is to take the romance, the mystery, the irony, the ambiguity out of everything he touches.

The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country.

If you have a brother or sister, tell them you love them every day - that's the most beautiful thing. I told my sister how much I loved her every day. That's the only reason I'm OK right now.

If you think that the intifada in France is about housing, go and try covering the story wearing a yarmulka .

I try really hard to cultivate the pure love of reading, to make time for it, because it would be really sad to still be a writer without remembering why, on some visceral, emotional level.

Without theory there is nothing to modify or learn.