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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Imtiaz Ali Quotes

I was interested in theatre and media and came to Mumbai to get a job. I imagined that the film industry would be a white building with producers sitting in different rooms, and you could walk in and meet them, and they would interview you and select you.

– Imtiaz Ali

I just write characters, and somehow they happen to be a boy and a girl. When the story is put together, and their characters interwoven, they do end up together somehow.

– Imtiaz Ali

When you write a story, it just flows and you don’t control it. It’s subconscious.

– Imtiaz Ali

I want to direct what I feel is interesting – not what is supposed to be my zone.

– Imtiaz Ali

I was complexed and awkward that I was good for nothing and was always lying. I would lie to my school friends that I was a stud in my colony and to my colony friends that I was a stud in the school cricket and football teams, though I was in no team.

– Imtiaz Ali

The physical journey in my films is indicative of the internal journey that my characters take.

– Imtiaz Ali

I enjoy scenes in films, which do not have the pressure of the story so much… and it flows. I’ve tried to go in that direction.

– Imtiaz Ali

I’m not the ‘look at me’ kind of a person. I do not like showing off in public or written about.

– Imtiaz Ali

I’m not educated about cinema or genres.

– Imtiaz Ali

Dilip Kumar was the only Bollywood hero who could make a girl shiver just by looking at her. If you don’t believe it, ask your mom!

– Imtiaz Ali

Especially on unexpected journeys, you have time; you can figure certain deeper things out, like who you are and what you want. That’s why I enjoy journeys.

– Imtiaz Ali

I’m a big foodie. Hyderabadi cuisine is amazing, and the kind of mutton dishes available at some restaurants in the Old City is incredible.

– Imtiaz Ali

I myself got married at a very young age. It has always intrigued me because marriage is very synthetic in an otherwise natural world.

– Imtiaz Ali

I try to travel as much as I can… I’m always looking for a reason to.

– Imtiaz Ali

I have always tried to make profitable films because people’s offices shut down if films fail, and I will do everything to avoid that.

– Imtiaz Ali

The film industry has been extremely welcoming to me. It’s an industry which is biased to what they think is talent. If they think you can bring value to cinema, they’ll support you.

– Imtiaz Ali

I want all my films to look distinctly different, like some other directors I admire. But in a way, I can’t really take myself completely out of the movies I make.

– Imtiaz Ali

I come from a middle class background. I have travelled a lot by trains and have lived in the world. It is a world I cannot get away from; I would not even want to.

– Imtiaz Ali

My father did irrigation jobs, and I would sometimes accompany him, and that gave me a taste of what was going on in the innards of India.

– Imtiaz Ali

I feel whatever an actor does on screen is something the actor ‘does,’ and what the director can do is to tell, talk or instruct. So, all the credit for an actor’s performance goes to the actor alone.

– Imtiaz Ali

My job is to tell a story, and the decisions about the casting have to be honest.

– Imtiaz Ali

Coming from a middle class background, travel was always considered a luxury then, even if it meant going to a relative’s place or a religious shrine.

– Imtiaz Ali

Through travel, you discover a new aspect to your personality. You discover things which you wouldn’t seated in the confines of your home.

– Imtiaz Ali

I think I am a travel junkie, and I have never enjoyed anything else in my life more than travelling and going to places.

– Imtiaz Ali

‘Love Aaj Kal’ is not really a road movie, but it does involve some travel.

– Imtiaz Ali

Anything I wanted to do and achieve has not been influential in my life, but my failures have.

– Imtiaz Ali