Jehane Quotes

#1. The protestors feel that the elections have been hijacked and the choices are between two corrupt parties - that when the power structure no longer represents the people, the vote is no longer a tool for change [Jehane Noujaim, "Tahrir Square, Cairo: Lost and Found in the Square"].

Catie Marron

#2. There are different opinions across the Middle East of Al-Jazeera. They've been kicked out of Egypt and Jordan and then let back in; they've been totally banned from Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Syria.

Jehane Noujaim

#3. Al Jazeera is one entity that everyone across the Arab world watches. Arabs are proud of that.

Jehane Noujaim

#4. Being a filmmaker is kind of like being a glorified spy.

Jehane Noujaim

#5. Tim Tebow is one of my biggest inspirations. I actually want to be able to do some of the things that he does in terms of the amount of charity work and the non-profit work, and the way he impacts people off the field. I think that is what is most inspiring to me about him.

Jeremy Lin

#6. I think everybody's had that feeling of sitting in a theater, in a dark room, with other strangers, watching a very powerful film, and they felt that feeling of transformation.

Jehane Noujaim

#7. I don't know if there's such a thing as objectivity.

Jehane Noujaim

#8. A blessing on the printer's art!
Books are the mentors of the heart.

Sarah Josepha Hale

#9. It would be nice to be in one place for a while and have a social life again and get a job. But I'm not qualified to do anything. That's the problem.

Jehane Noujaim

#10. It's important in any project to remain focused.

Jehane Noujaim

#11. In making films, I'm constantly looking for people who are in conflict and who are going to surprise you and challenge you.

Jehane Noujaim

#12. It's incredible to see the creativity, beauty and hardships people capture when filmmaking is opened up and shared with the world.

Jehane Noujaim

#13. A person can be big, because of spirit. A person can be big because of their position in the family, the hierarchy in the family. That role has been played by women who are quite thin.

Phylicia Rashad

#14. I'm interested in characters that are complex people.

Jehane Noujaim

#15. Nothing is poorer than a truth expressed as it was thought. Committed to writing in such cases, it is not even a bad photograph. Truth wants to be startled abruptly, at one stroke, from her self-immersion, whether by uproar, music or cries for help ...

Walter Benjamin

#16. If you can laugh with somebody and relate to somebody, it becomes harder to dehumanize them. I think that most of what we are constantly bombarded with in terms of media leads you to a creation of 'the Other' and a dehumanization of 'the Other,' and it's very much an us-versus-them conversation.

Jehane Noujaim

#17. I've discovered I can't make a film about people I dislike.

Jehane Noujaim

#18. Al Jazeera is demonized by the United States, yet in Egypt my father would be watching it.

Jehane Noujaim

#19. In this age of getting what you want and getting it now, the simple pleasure of browsing is often forgotten.

Tom Hodgkinson

#20. When I hear the words 'activist filmmaking,' I think of somebody who's an activist, who wants to prove a particular point.

Jehane Noujaim

#21. I have actually been very fortunate to be able to make films on my own credit card without having huge funders behind me dictating how the story should be told.

Jehane Noujaim

#22. THE soul should always stand ajar,
That if the heaven inquire,
He will not be obliged to wait,
Or shy of troubling her.
Depart, before the host has slid
The bolt upon the door,
To seek for the accomplished guest,
Her visitor no more.

Emily Dickinson

#23. There are these very poor communities on the outskirts of Cairo called Mokattam, where a lot of the garbage collectors live. I used to volunteer there, doing health and education work when I was younger and living in Egypt.

Jehane Noujaim

#24. Look at the Civil Rights Movement. Look at any kind of fight for change. People had to keep fighting and taking their rights. Rights are never given to you. They have to be fought for and they have to be taken.

Jehane Noujaim

#25. You know, Arabs are critical of United States foreign policy, but they also associate the U.S. with democratic principles and opportunity.

Jehane Noujaim

#26. I'll continue making films because I love being able to drop into other people's worlds. My goal is to be constantly learning.

Jehane Noujaim

#27. Traveling around the world during the World Cup in 2006, I was thinking, 'Wow, this is such an incredible and global event.'

Jehane Noujaim

#28. Now, I don't know whether a film can change the world, but I know that it starts - I know the power of it - I know that it starts people thinking about how to change the world.

Jehane Noujaim