I mix Indian instruments with Western instruments all the time.

At the age when Bengali youth almost inevitably writes poetry, I was listening to European classical music.

Cinema’s characteristic forte is its ability to capture and communicate the intimacies of the human mind.

The director is the only person who knows what the film is about.

The only solutions that are ever worth anything are the solutions that people find themselves.

I don't understand these national awards, because half of those who sit in judgement over Indian films do not... possess the competence to evaluate a film correctly.

My films play only in Bengal, and my audience is the educated middle class in the cities and small towns. They also play in Bombay, Madras and Delhi where there is a Bengali population.

There's always some room for improvisation.

Last, but not least -- in fact, this is most important -- you need a happy ending. However, if you can create tragic situations and jerk a few tears before the happy ending, it will work much better.

When I write an original story I write about people I know first-hand and situations I'm familiar with. I don't write stories about the nineteenth century.

Particularly in the final stages I always find that I'm rushed. It's dangerous when you're rushed in the editing stage, most of my early films are flawed in the cutting

Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.

We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.

I prayed for someone to love me as much as I love you. Eventually I came to see that that "someone" was me.

Unbelief and belief are both marching on His road, while both are saying, ‘He is one and He has no associates’.

I think we put our children at an enormous disadvantage by not educating them in war, by not letting them understand about it at an early age.

That's in the nature of social change. So you can analyze what didn't work, but it's very hard to predict what will work.

Good thoughts are no better than good dreams, unless they are executed.

Nothing is worth putting my health on the line. Not a camera, not a title, nothing.

I think the barrier for a lot of people to actual, real, lasting love is the fantasy. The problem is that we think in "happily ever after" love, but real love grows over time, and priorities change.

Time is the wisest of all things that are; for it brings everything to light.