Ziad Doueiri Quotes

#1. Sometimes art is ahead of revolution.

Ziad Doueiri

#2. I was born in Lebanon and emigrated to the U.S. and went back. I'd been raised in a French school in Beirut. Lebanon is a peculiar place, so bicultural it goes along with you. There is a Western influence, an Eastern influence. Most people are fluctuating between those identities.

Ziad Doueiri

#3. I was a child during the Lebanese civil war, and I remember Israeli bombardments. So growing up, my view of Israel was completely negative. I'm not coming from a neutral place, but with time, I've had to re-examine my thinking.

Ziad Doueiri

#4. The mystified idea I had of Israel - the demonization of Israel - it just wasn't true.

Ziad Doueiri

#5. Nine months after we submitted the original screenplay for 'The Attack,' the studio that was involved pulled out. I've been told that 'you don't write in a French way; you can't make these multicultural films.'

Ziad Doueiri

#6. I am constantly swimming on the margin, neither 100% American, French, nor Lebanese. I am none of those. I am the result of those three. Sometimes it's an asset: no one can put you in a category. That I do not make typical Lebanese, European or American films does not bother me.

Ziad Doueiri

#7. I wasn't trained as a writer-director. And the projects I write are difficult to finish.

Ziad Doueiri

#8. I graduated from UC San Diego, wanted to work in film to get my hands-on real experience, did music videos, TV, feature films, all kinds of stuff.

Ziad Doueiri

#9. I wrote and finished the script for 'Man in the Middle' two weeks after the September 11 bombing. It's a very American film about an ex-diplomat based in the Middle East, a leader in the U.S. administration who now sells used cars in the Middle East.

Ziad Doueiri

#10. The world is going on a high-speed connection; the Arab revolution is still dial-up. So we have to give it a little time to download. Regimes come and go, but art endures.

Ziad Doueiri