Pakistan destroyed its own reputation. If anything, I have improved Pakistan's image.

It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from - if you put quality work out there, it will be appreciated.

What good is my parents' wealth and education and upbringing if I'm not contributing to the world?

As filmmakers, you're not working on just one project, you're producing something, directing something, shooting something, and so it becomes hard to do it by yourself.

I'd like to do a film in Canada, but it's too difficult. National Film Board funding takes too long, and there's too much paperwork; by the time the film is approved the topic is dead and gone.

I became a documentary filmmaker because I wanted to make socially conscious films. I never studied filmmaking - everything I have learned has been on the field.

I hope I can make Pakistan proud by bringing home an Oscar.

By bringing the voices of the ordinary people faced with extraordinary challenges to television screens around the world, I hope to affect change in one community at a time.

The Pakistani government and its allies must overhaul their policies in Pakistan.

An Academy Award nomination is stuff dreams are made of.

Don't give up your dreams.

The man with the best job in the country is the vice-president. All he has to do is get up every morning and say, 'How is the president?'

The deeper you love yourself, the more the universe will affirm your worth. Then you can enjoy a lifelong love affair that brings you the richest fulfillment from inside out.

To me, the solidarity of readers is far more important than the solidarity of writers, particularly since readers in fact find ways to connect over a book or books, whatever they may be.

I've got Flossie dog, and she is great. She and I are still in love, 14 years. That's a relationship that works.

Why do we insist on building the largest and most impressive structures in our city when people on the other side of town are hungry, jobless and worshipping in storefronts?

[I write] intuitively, reflexively, as if skiing down a steep mountain slope with no time to think.

My kids used to love math. Now it makes them cry. Thanks standardized testing and common core!

We are exceptionally good at seeing the faults in others and exceptionally adept at ignoring the faults in ourselves.

Give yourself time to get better.

The manifesto of the dealmaker is simple: Reality is negotiable.