Ramin Bahrani quotes:

Since Hollywood seems to be more interested in people wearing tights and using powers, there seems to be a fertile ground for movies about real human beings.

The people who run the major banks have MBAs and wear suits. And when those people in suits come to the homes of people who don't have a high school diploma, don't even speak English, and offer them a home at zero percent down, that doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense.

We're living in a time period where if a kid is on a plastic scooter that's one inch off the ground, mom and dad think he should have a helmet on. I don't think they should have a helmet on. They should break their leg and have an imagination. Otherwise, we're going to have a nation of accountants.

Sometimes we have dreams, but we just can't make them. That's normal.

You have to let life come and go.

So much can be learned by any filmmaker by studying his work, in terms of blocking, staging, editing and sound.

I like to give the actors the freedom, and they know they have the freedom, to change anything they want at any time.

I never say "Action" or "Cut." Never. I think that would disturb the life from happening in and around everything.

Most of the projects aren't that interesting anymore. There used to be a day when the studios made amazing films, and they were about human beings.

The actors come and you start seeing things happen for real.

The job of the writer and the filmmaker is not to impose his vision on the reality, but to be inspired by the reality and create a vision out of that.

We're living in a world that says that if you engage in mass fraud, you'll be rewarded, but if you go down the street and steal an orange juice, you get arrested.