Quotes from Naseeruddin Shah

Everyone equates good cinema with boring shots and boring films - where a character takes 10 minutes to walk down a corridor, and still nothing happens at the end of the shot. Those films tried to be cool and fashionable by dispensing with drama, which, in my opinion, is absolute nonsense.

Nowhere else, perhaps, is the Quran recited so much and understood so little as in India.

The magic of theatre is how much can you stimulate the mind of the audience, not how many illusions you can create.

My dad occupied a government position, deputy collector, in a city called Nainital, so we had access to the cinemas at any time. I saw my first movies when I was very young.

It's completely beyond comprehension that you just can't say anything without offending somebody or the other.

I am the king of old school romance.

Acting is fun, but directing is very stressful.

An actor's job is to find variations of the same emotion in his being so that every time he expresses grief or joy, it doesn't look the same.

The ballooning budgets of Bollywood are getting out of hand, and it's important for people to realise that you don't need Rs 20 crore to make a good, commercially viable film.

I had many doubts while writing my autobiography. I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested to read about my life.

I've always found people with physical disabilities interesting to watch: how the dynamics of their body work, what makes them move this way or that.

I have gone into every project with the same enthusiasm and the same hope, but some have worked out, and some haven't.

Don't opt for acting as an escape from education.

Acting is learnt, not taught.

'Macbeth,' I am ambivalent about. I don't like that play, in fact.