Mira Nair

New York City is home to so many people from so many places and the uniqueness of it is that you never feel a foreigner. English is almost hardly ever heard in the subway. In fact, it's weird.

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.

I don't want to say that we are the world in that we are not distinct from each other. I want to say that the humanity that is our foundation is common, but my culture, my beliefs, my values, what makes me sing and what makes me happy and the language I speak in and the relationships I have in the world are distinctive.

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

We want the diversity of the world that is around us represented both in front of and behind the camera, and on our screens as a result.

What's nice about what we have is when you enter the set, the world of film, it becomes this real cocoon, very different from all the publicity. That's the fun part.

I think I am kind of put on this Earth to speak of being between worlds in my films.

My family is vital to me - just the sense of being surrounded by no pretension.

I think in the last thirty years, the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer. It is not something that you can see with rose-colored glasses.

I don't think boldness should be associated with showing off skin. It's not the basis of boldness.

In Uganda, I am surrounded, unfortunately, by evangelicals; I can't bear it. Every night I hear the chants of Baptists urging people to be born again.

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