On the other hand, I believe there's hope, because the breakdown and the repair are happening simultaneously.

I choose material instinctually -- at the heart of it are characters that I feel are fresh and original, and allow for an opportunity to, I suppose, explore uncharted ground.

If there's specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can't change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies.

The Communist regime didn't consider this to be a shining moment in history and assigned no heroism to it. They classified it as merely an accident.

Jordan is a very secular, Westernized country in some respects.

I like high impact movies.

There will come a time when the world will look back to modern vivisection in the name of science, as they do now to burning at the stake in the name of religion.

Those of us who work in the arts know that depiction is not endorsement. If it was, no artist would be able to paint inhumane practices, no author could write about them, and no filmmaker could delve into the thorny subjects of our time.

Am I a 'woman of action'? I don't think of myself that way.

I realised that there's a more muscular approach to film-making that I found very inspiring.

There's a conventional reaction when you see a star: You anticipate he'll be a part of a particular denouement down the road, so you don't worry for that character.

I'm interested in social commentary.

War's dirty little secret is that some men love it. I'm trying to unpack why, to look at what it means to be a hero in the context of 21st-century combat.

I don't know if I thrive in normal life.

What's most galvanizing for me is the opportunity to be topical and relevant and entertaining. That's the holy grail.

I don't do what I do to try and break a glass ceiling.

You never think the universe will reward your first choice -- it just doesn't work like that.

I suppose I like to think of myself as a film-maker.

Something becomes personal when it deviates from the norm.

I do have to say I have been very fortunate.