People ask me this, but 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.

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 want to question what the outside is and who defines it. I often find those that are considered to be on the outside extremely inspiring.

They say now in America that final cut doesn`t mean anything. As Harvey Weinstein said to some film-maker, `You can have final cut. I`ll open your film in Arkansas.`

I guess that would be Indian, in a way. We are used to no privacy. We are used to a lot of people in a room, sleeping on mattresses.

Truth is more peculiar than fiction. Life is really a startling place.

But if I have an obsession at all, it is with hands. I love hands and I love lips. I never cast lipless actors. So Kenneth Branagh, no thank you. It`s a weird thing but I do have these two obsessions.

What is really important to me is a sense of humour and a mischief about life. Life is just too boring otherwise.

I would say that the audience in India is very important for me. Not for every film, of course, and certainly not for Hysterical Blindness, but for films that have come from my heart, like Salaam Bombay and Monsoon Wedding.

I am an independent film-maker first and foremost. I have always cut my own cloth.

I grew up in a very small town which is remote even by Indian standards. I always dreamed of the world.

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

I always like to reveal the fact that the emperor has no clothes. And children are best at that. They teach us how to see the world in that sense. They are without artifice; they see it for what it is. I am drawn to that ruthless honesty.

I want to question what the outside is and who defines it. I often find those that are considered to be on the outside extremely inspiring. They are the people who see through the double standards, like the kid in Salaam Bombay and the courtesan in Kama Sutra.

I grew up in a very small town which is remote even by Indian standards. I always dreamed of the world.

I am an independent film-maker first and foremost. I have always cut my own cloth.

Never treat anything you do as a stepping stone. Do it fully, and follow it completely.

They say now in America that final cut doesn`t mean anything. As Harvey Weinstein said to some film-maker, `You can have final cut. I`ll open your film in Arkansas.`

I always like to reveal the fact that the emperor has no clothes. And children are best at that. They teach us how to see the world in that sense. They are without artifice; they see it for what it is. I am drawn to that ruthless honesty.

People ask me this, but 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.

I like to be unabashed, which is an Indian trait, both emotionally and visually. It`s important to have a circus to play with.

...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. It does not take you many places.

I was seen as an outsider in the beginning and then an object of great envy. All the national directors wanted to be international. They would come up to me and say, If I cast Michael Caine and Sean Connery, do you think this will make it?" There was this fascination with the international that was totally wrong-headed."

I guess that would be Indian, in a way. We are used to no privacy. We are used to a lot of people in a room, sleeping on mattresses.