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

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.

It was only after Pather Panchali had some success at home that I decided to do a second part. But I didn't want to do the same kind of film again, so I made a musical.

Do not trust a teacher that is unwilling to learn.

There is hardly a better way to avoid discussion than by releasing an argument from the control of the present and by saying that only the future will reveal its merits.

Love - a grave mental disease.

I always saw candy as art.

I have a stepladder. It's a very nice stepladder but it's sad that I never knew my real ladder.

People always want to knock you when you're up.

Marriage is a strange combination of dream and reality, and we spend our lives as couples trying to negotiate that divide.

I'm in a war, a cultural war.

We are bound to our ancestors and to those who made us, whether we want to be or not. What matters is what we make of what we are.

It is often said that the Church is a crutch. Of course it's a crutch. What makes you think you don't limp?