121 Quotes by Mira Nair

I look for the humanity in people, however big the politics or oppressive the situation may be, whether it’s subsumed within a human being or between two human beings. I want to help us hold a mirror to ourselves.

It’s only at this age that I can say the word ‘art’ without flinching.

Every film is a political act; it’s how you see the world.

I know what it’s like to be in one place and dream of another. I also know what it’s like to feel that nostalgia is a fairly useless thing because it is stasis.

Americans are not used to being bombed in their beds, but if you come from anywhere outside America, it’s not highly unusual.

Bollywood actors are so set in what they want, and the way they want it. And why shouldn’t they be? But it is not the same in Hollywood, because the love of the audience is not the same.

You’ve got to understand that in Bollywood, every actor is an instrument, and yet a human being. They come to the set with a set agenda, believing, ‘This is who I am, this is what I want, and no, I am not going to become that character you want me to.’

I’ve never sought to be on an A-list. I’ve done my own thing and my own thing has thankfully now brought me an audience.

Sitting in America, we never get to know the other side in any kind of believable way. We have so many movies about Iraq, Afghanistan, and this and that, but there is never a character from that side.