Satyajit Ray

“I don't start with a story. I start with a character.”

“The director is the only person who knows what the film is about.”

“There's always some room for improvisation.”

“Somehow I feel that an ordinary person–the man in the street if you like–is a more challenging subject for exploration than people in the heroic mould.”

“It is the close-up that reveals. The human face is a land one can never tire of exploring.”

“Cinema's characteristic forte is its ability to capture and communicate the intimacies of the human mind.”

“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.”

“The only solutions that are ever worth anything are the solutions that people find themselves.”

“I wouldn't mind directing a sci-fi movie, but I would want it to be a film about humanity, not gadgets.”

“The quiet dignity of the poor is something that has always moved me.”

“Last, but not least — in fact, this is the most important thing — you need a happy ending.”

“When you are famous, you are not in control of your destiny.”

“I had developed a passion for the cinema. I was fascinated by it. I had no desire to be a film director.”

“The writer is the most important person. It's the writer who gives the director the basis for his work.”