Quotes

We all have our individual tastes, and reasons for liking a piece of art. Unlike computers, humans do not simply use logic and mathematics; we also feel. That is why no two critics' list will ever be alike.

Clownery, as Chaplin, Keaton, and Fellini have shown us, is a powerful disguise of great, sensitive souls with a sad past.

Stardom is fickle; occasionally lifting its achievers high up in the air only to throw them mercilessly down the hill. Sustained survival at the heights isn't easy for it is dependent on the varying tastes and moods of an external source, a not-very-predictable audience.

Perfectionism can be quite a nice trait to possess; except that it runs the danger of being a little expensive. Especially in filmmaking, an art form in which time is money and paying attention to a wide range of details is a requisite.

Filmmaking, in its finest form, is an art that employs sounds and visuals to tell a story with the least amount of dialogue.

Circumstances and the prevailing laws of society can radically change ordinary people and compel them to commit atrocities.

There comes a time in every girl's imagination when what she'd want above all is to throw a few things in a bag and hit the road all by herself. Now, this may not sound like the sanest thing to do, but if you're tough in a clever way and know how to take care of yourself, chances are that you'll return feeling more accomplished than ever.

We human beings are a curse to this planet. If we refuse to change our ugly ways, the plant kingdom will someday find a way to destroy us.

Many a successful director of yore have this funny belief that they are required to degenerate to be able to draw an applause from today's audience.

History as we know it is only as authentic as the various historians would have us believe.

In acting, the histrionics of one actor may be employed to successfully expose the inner feelings of another.

What does success mean to you, and how much are you willing to pay for it? Are you prepared to go the whole distance following the ethical route? Or, at some point, will you trade your ethics for a quick result?

Human bonding is a natural virtue. It drives individuals of a society to altruistically sacrifice personal needs, safeties, and time for the good of the others within it. And it is best manifested when people are on foreign sands and in dire straits.

Times change, and so do the surroundings and old values. Unable or unwilling to adapt, some of the old folks retreat into their own world, cling onto their past, and become untrusting and intolerant. Often, the least they need to do for themselves is to free their conscious and unburden their souls of the weights that pull them down.

Speech is a gift. But to the tongue-tied and the ones who have no control over their choice of words, it can be a real misfortune too.

The winds of radical change is both refreshing and destructive, forcefully dashing against everything that stands in its path.

Wrong conditioning often leads to discrimination against the beliefs, customs, practices, and social behavior of a society diametrically opposite the one in which you were raised. Therefore, if you interact positively with societies that are alien to you, you will gradually discover that there is much that you can imbibe from it.

Experimentation when there is much to lose is an art that requires tremendous daring.

To know pure happiness, you must throw out all the old, weighty garbage stored secretly in some corner of your mind; some of which, both sweet and painful at the same time, extend way back to the days of childhood.

They who refuse to rid themselves of the scars of their past spread their depression, even if suppressed, to those with whom they interact. For, even the sweetest smile is incapable of hiding the truth.

Nothing is certain. Who knows what tomorrow brings.

The only way to overcome your fears is to face it.

Life is short. And life is beautiful. Embrace every nice moment that it has to offer you, till the very end. For, a vegetable existence is worthless and pointlessness. What shall you gain by waiting miserly for the grim reaper to come and turn you into dust?

We have the choice of amending our behavior and deeds today, so that some day in the future we wouldn't have this urge to go back in time to be able to re-live our life in a different way.

Certain self-appointed guardians would like to believe that the waste of society needs to be eliminated. Such ruthless thoughts appear more dangerous. At a certain point, the lines are crossed and all things are blurred. Black and white does not exist. Everything and everyone is grey.

Times change. People change. Tastes change. What is unreal is desirable. And what is real is not always that sweet.

There comes a point in time when the most timid can rip the crap out of the most seemingly fearless; when a foot that is used to getting its way in life faces an unexpected uprising from a doormat that refuses to be kicked.

The idea of a world at total peace is a myth. There will always be war as long as humans are around. Even if everyone has more than a sufficient share of the highest quality food, water, air, and shelter in addition to all other things nice and desirable. The compelling greed to be above others is not the only reason for this. Personal opinions that are intolerant to those of others are the most dangerous of all sins.

Happiness is a virtue that wholly belongs to them who genuinely love and understand and are good to themselves and to those around them. All others fake happiness and fool people as well as themselves only temporarily.

People who are ashamed of their failures and/or are afraid of facing the truth often create fake avatars and live a fairy tale life that exist only in their own mind.

Life sometimes has this sad, strange way of suddenly falling apart just when you think you've begun to get lucky. Things that appear too picture perfect may not be destined to last for too long.

Some things make sense, while a lot others simply don't. And often there is no telling which, what, why, or how.

When a material thief is caught, they are first beaten up and then imprisoned. Why then, are those charged (if ever) with the more severe crime of intellectual thievery, let off with a monetary fine? Plagiarism is a serious offense to thinkers, and those who are guilty of committing it must be locked up.

The director's baton is not a toy; before wielding it for the first time, one is required to master the grammar of the art and spend quality time gathering some amount of practical experience.

A majority of scripts with promising one-liners fail miserably as films chiefly because the plot and the characters are still in the embryo stage at the time of production.

Icon worshiping can be a dangerous obsession. If you ever get to know your idol on a personal level you could be shocked when it dawns upon you that they are radically different from the storybook character you grew up with and believed they were.

When an amateur cameraperson is perched atop a crane, there's always the danger that they'll make a royal mess of the images.

Originality is an art that isn't practiced everywhere.

The neorealist school of filmmaking when it came into existence advocated the use of deep focus lenses for a specific reason. It allowed reality to pervade every micro-inch of the screen.

The instincts of the animal are powerful. And no potent individual is forever a saint in their thoughts. Thus, fantasies are fine. It is when they are translated into deeds that the social scenario can get ugly.

Stars, prettiness, fights, songs, and running on the mountainside are fine as secondary elements, but they all fall flat in the absence of the primary requisites.

Emotional isolation, inner fears, and arrogance have the power to stir the fires of artistic genius in the directions of both creativity and self-destruction.

Some of the decisions taken by the megastar godfathers of the industry are purely astonishing. We hear that they spend hours of their free time listening to a variety of scripts. And after all this, they place themselves in a film without a proper story?

Films with neither a proper thread nor story are a grave insult. It is a shame that intelligent people who matter still encourage rubbish at the cost of starving, obscure writers with depth waiting desperately for someone to pick up their dreams.

Parents often finally succeed through their children. The former having failed, not always because they were less talented, but simply because their opportunities were far less. What is noteworthy is that they did not compromise on dedication or choose the shorter cuts.

Relationships are complex, and varied. Some couples are happy in ones that appear eternal. Some stay patiently in ones that can be mended. And some are doomed in forever broken ones.

Wannabe writers often ask me, 'What is the best method to protect one's script?' There is no foolproof way to do it, anywhere in the world, I tell them, frankly. If you close your eyes and believe that registering it with a writer's association makes it safe it from the robbers, you could be in for a truly unpleasant surprise. What would really thrill me is the sight, some time in the faraway future at least, of a potent writers guild dragging the authors of all plagiarized material to court by their collars.

When a filmmaker is both raw and starved for ideas, and entrusted with a decent budget and a megastar, it is necessary that they pack their unit with seasoned technicians and associate directors in addition to choosing a genre that they are naturally comfortable with. Else, there's every chance that they'll bake a tasteless cake. Only a rare few get a dream chance to make their debut film with important actors, and in such a film it would be a crime if the image that stands out most prominently is that of a dancing woman's thigh.

Preachers, as a rule, rarely follow their own preaching. Indeed, some of the soundest advice arise from a suppressed guilty conscience.