I'm always looking in the lighting to tell the story in a different way than it actually looks in real life because it's, for me, more contrast sometimes has to mean it's softer than normal.

I like to say that lighting is about taking the light away. I often like to use the shadows more than the light.

For me, movies should be visual. If you want dialogue, you should read a book.

There is something missing in a lot of digital filmmaking, something I call "poetic reality." That's something you see played out in film noir, where the technique establishes the mood.

You can't just stick with what you know, you have to evolve.

The best way to know when there's good lighting is when you don't notice it.

As the cinematographer is usually more visual than the director is and full cooperation is really the answer and to make a great film, you need a good director and you need a good cinematographer.

If you do not bother to take the time to compose and to light properly, then you end up with something almost less than reality. You end up without the soul, the heart, the art of the moment.

I hope that film is going to stay as an artform and that people won't forget that there are good movies also to be made.

I think film is about images. Cinema needs good images. I think that if you don’t have good images, it’s not going to be a good film. I think all films should be really visual.

There is something more to "reality" than just the tangible. There is also mood, and you cannot skip that.

Kabhi tere shehar se guzarein toh parr lena inney, Maine hawaon pe apne kuch safarname likhe hain..

If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else.

I'm so envious of that genetic wiring that immediately puts a smile on your face. My genetic wiring just puts creases in my eyebrows.

There is only a single step between impurity and purity.

I have no trouble sleeping.

I can’t run around falling in love with fantasies.

They say that you can't live by bread alone, but I can live on compliments.

It's always awkward when someone doesn't realize you're joking and devotes thought time to what you've said. Double that when the person is wearing tinfoil.

America's education system has become less a ladder of opportunity than a structure to transmit inequity from one generation to the next.

I don't really care how I sound.