“The idea that I had anything to do with speaking about Islam or about the Muslim world was just absurd to my family. … I hadn’t been to the mosque in like 10 years.”

We are Muslims. My father would pawn off his Muslim in-laws as Hindus just so that he could get free pancakes.

Statistically there is enough voter fraud to sway zero elections.

I grew up on American pop culture so everything that I fantasized about to get out of this sort of humdrum world of Bradford was about America. So when we decided to move there I was on the plane.

I’ve always said I’m the worst representative of Muslim-Americans that’s ever existed, because I’ve been inside more bars than mosques.

It’s an organic thing that I try not to analyze too much, because I worry that it will go away.

I think politicians and comedians have a lot in common. One is a group of approval-seeking narcissists who will say and do anything to be liked… and comedians are always talking about politics.

So I had this completely unrealistic idea of what America was — but I wanted to be there.

I’m Muslim the way many of my Jewish friends are Jewish: I avoid pork, and I take the big holidays off.

It is ironic that it doesn’t matter how successful I am in any other capacity. Ultimately, my parents marker is do you have a wife? And do you have children?

North Carolina precinct chairman and GOP executive committee member Don Yelton thinks his state’s new voting restrictions are just fine.

If you don’t acknowledge differences, it’s as bad as stereotyping or reducing someone.

An artist’s job is simply to take the mirror in front of your face and hold it there. It’s not to give you any answers. It is simply to take that mirror and point it at you.

Paki- bashing was kind of this term that was used in general to beat up anyone that was from the Indian subcontinent.

Traditional television as we have known it will make love to the Internet and have a child. That child will be the future. It’s already happening, and it’s hot!

I was a fan of “The Daily Show” I watched it,I never imagined being on it, but I figured I would just go down there and do my best Stephen Colbert impression.

Indian culture is essentially much more of a we culture. It’s a communal culture where you do what’s best for the community – you procreate.

I pray and wait for an answer in pictures, words or ideas.

The idea of starting with that Kanye [West] song is declarative. It says, “This is the kind of story we’re telling.”

it’s possibly to bring out one’s individuality. If this idea appeals to you,

I consider it my job to nurture the creativity of the people I work with because at Sony we know that a terrific idea is more likely to happen in an open, free and trusting atmosphere than when everything is calculated.

I have no idea who the characters are, later, their personalities take over anything I might want to do.

When I start on a film I always have a number of ideas about my project. Then one of them begins to germinate, to sprout, and it is this, which I take and work with.

The “patron saint” of Japanese quality control, ironically, is an American named W. Edwards Deming, who was virtually unknown in his own country until his ideas of quality control began to make such a big impact on Japanese companies.

But I think what diversity brings to any daypart is more eyeballs, just more opportunity.