“My father hasn’t backed me in any way, and I don’t think anybody has backed me.”

I know it’s a big gamble, but I want to do good films.

My films may not have a great opening, but I am not bothered about it. Whatever the numbers be, I want those viewers who come for my films to be excited about watching the movie.

I am an actor, and I would like to reinvent myself through every character that I portray.

There are two kinds of films: the ones that are devoid of logic but can still hijack the audience, and those that can win them over with logic. Both kinds can succeed, and I like to work in both.

I think everything is temporary.

Failure affects me hard.

It is easier to produce a film on your own than convincing another person to come on board.

If I had my way, I want to do 15 films in a year, but I have realised I cannot physically do that.

I have been fortunate to collaborate with people who have been open to discussion. If I tell them something, they have always explained to me why they want it the other way.

Let me make something clear: I can’t do anything in particular to make others laugh. I do what is necessary for a character. The body language of the character may make others laugh.

The less people know about you, the more you understand how beautiful life is. It’s good when you exist only on screen. I don’t want them to take me home. I love to have my privacy.

What I look for in a project is whether the storyline excites me.

I never wanted to be an actor but ended up being one.

Roles don’t fascinate me. It is the narrative, the screenplay that is fascinating.

If I do a film, I go to the place where it is based on, interact with people, and then, I believe, you pick up things without you even noticing.

It feels good to hear good things about yourself.

I learned from my father to translate: everything I read I try to figure out what it really means, what it’s really saying.

There’s something different about growing up black and Muslim, especially in New Jersey. It’s like when I left the mosque and I left my dad, I felt unprotected, but I also felt a weird sense of pride, like I was involved in this other way of living that was cool to me.

In spite of the seven thousand books of expert advice, the right way to discipline a child is still a mystery to most fathers and mothers Only your grandmother and Genghis Khan know how to do it.

Nothing I’ve ever done has given me more joys and rewards than being a father to my children.

Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope.

Time, as far as my father was concerned, was a gift you gave to other people.

My father was a musician, so I feel like falling into this career was a bit inevitable.

Papa Don’t Preach