Quotes

The artist's role is to raise the consciousness of the people. To make them understand life, the world and themselves more completely. That's how I see it. Otherwise, I don't know why you do it.

I'm fully conscious all the time that I'm an American Negro, because it's part of my life. But I also know that if I want to say, 'I see a bus full of people,' I don't have to say, 'I am a Negro seeing a bus full of people.'

While in some countries there's a feeling that literature must stay away from religion, this is not so in India - in the Indian way, literature is just another means to find a more spiritual life, to find our way to God.

At the outset, I think that one should be natural, not just when it comes to writing but in every area of life. If you try to be something that you are not just to impress others, then it's a rather sad life.

He has turned my life around by 180 degrees, I still don't understand why Shiva has blessed me so much. I believe he'll bless the worst of us first because we need it the most.

Life is all about evolution. What looks like a mistake to others has been a milestone in my life. Even if people have betrayed me, even if my heart was broken, even if people misunderstood or judged me, I have learned from these incidents. We are human and we make mistakes, but learning from them is what makes the difference.

I was at a place called Mukteshwar. I have a property there and the best part about it is that you can see the Himalayan mountain ranges from there. Also, there's a lot of wildlife around my house. There are sambars, barking deers and leopards too.

Actors should stop complaining about nepotism. I am uneducated - I was asked to leave school in Class 11. I came to Mumbai with only Rs 300, yet there is no one in this industry who has not been nice to me. From filmmakers who have given me work to people who have given me advice, I feel blessed to have them in my life.

I take things as they come. I don't have a special someone in my life because I am not the kind of man most women prefer. If I ever fall for a woman, it will happen at the right time.

Very early in my life, I realised that it is okay getting rejected. Sometimes, we take rejection too personally.

For me, 'Sultan' was like a resurrection. I think my career was almost dead. You go through these lows and highs in life, especially in a film career and you live with your chin up.

From an organisation point of view, I want the BJP to be the bright national political party in all the states of India and having an impact on social life.

Laws of physics don't necessarily apply to real-life political situations.

We don't worry about our future because all BJP leaders are accustomed to sit in the opposition. We have spent our life in the opposition.

In public life, differences should not deter us from acknowledging the good work done by others whom we may not agree with.

The only place where any artist feels liberated is doing independent music. I have had great experience making music for The Dewarists and Coke Studio. No actor, producer or label is telling me what to do with my music. I'm the boss. It is my life, my expression.

Life is a blur when one is essaying different roles; it is so fulfilling.

I just lead my life as naturally, as normally as I possibly can. But I can't help it if controversy is hounding me day in and day out. I'm quite amazed sometimes by the way they go about it. I grow a beard and it lands up in the editorial in The Times of India.

There are large numbers of people in India below the poverty line; there are large numbers of people who lead a meager existence. They want to find a little escape from the hardships of life and come and watch something colorful and exciting and musical. Indian cinema provides that.

I don't have anything in particular to achieve; I don't want to go any particular direction. I just want to take up the challenges of life as we go along.

These are rare moments in an actor's life, where you're put in an environment which is so natural, and you get natural performances.

We play many emotions in our careers, emotions that in real life we would perform just once. For example, my character has died in about 10 films, so you have to keep searching for different ways to do it!

Audiences change because life changes. Countries change geographically, climatically, socially and morally. Many things happen, and cinema, in a sense, reflects what's happening in the world.

A lot of my fighting qualities I inherited from my parents. They set tremendous examples right through my life.

If you represent a fantasy for the people who actually go to the cinema, they grab that and go with it; therefore, for the rest of their lives, they actually identify you with a certain thinking - a certain philosophy. There are many actors who want to pursue that same thought in real life as well, and that's perfectly acceptable.