"My interest was dance and, in the beginning, I didn't enjoy acting at all. It was my mother who brought me into films and who looked after my career. I remember each time a producer came to meet her, my only reaction was, 'Oh God, another year of my life gone.'"

"Politics is a jungle where destinies change every evening."

"Learning the long lines and delivering them in one take was a nightmare, but Rameshji helped me as also the fact that I have a good memory. It is only when you become successful that you realize how everything contributes to your success."

"I have been chanting Soundarya Lahari, written by Adi Shankara for about 16 years now. It is very popular here in the South but not many know of it in North India and this is my offering for the pooja season. I meditate to these shlokas and am very happy that Suresh Wadkar and Shankar Mahadevan have contributed to it, with Amitabh Bachchan giving the introduction."

"I am glad I got to be part of such a historic film,” she says and pauses to think. And then adds, “The movie is still popular and that’s great. It also means that for as long as people remember the film, I will also be there in their memories. That’s special. And of course, it is not just Sholay but people also remember me for Seeta Aur Geeta. When I am in the U.S., I love travelling in cabs. And there have been times when Russian cab drivers recognised me and hummed a few tunes from the movie!"

"We went to Kumbh, we had a very nice bath. It is right that an incident took place, but it was not a very big incident. I don't know how big it was. It is being exaggerated. It was very well-managed, and everything was done very well...So many people are coming, it is very difficult to manage but we are doing our best."

"Though I was too young to understand the complexities of marriage, I understand that the premise of their disagreement was unfair. Why must a woman have to give up her passion after marriage when the same is never asked of a man."

"One of my first tasks is to instill discipline into the organisation. We do not need slogan shouting. Too many 'leaders' do nothing but sit on podiums or get themselves photographed with other leaders. This must stop. The Youth Congress leaders must go back to the roots and serve the people. I want to bring back value-based politics to the youth wing."

"So many roles, so many trends, so many kinds of cinema and so many stories…I have projected different images during different decades, voiced different concerns –sometimes as a daughter, sometimes as a wife and mother- but often I ask myself if things have really changed. I am not sure."

"My concept of secularism is to be a good human being who respects all religions."

"I made a serial called Nupur in which I danced for one particular shloka of Soundarya Lahari . The show was mostly about dance. It is then that I started learning to chant Soundarya Lahari . …People only know me as an actor and a dancer but recently I thought about doing this album."

"I wish it culminates in something positive and we can both grow economically. The money we spend on weapons can be used to give water to the people, to educate everybody, to give them medical aid and to give employment to the youth of the country."

"There should be no statues or a street named after me, no postal stamp with my face or any a organization after me. I like people to remember me by following my work"

"Somehow, this hatred should come to an end. I am a believer of nonviolence. I believe we all are one, whichever religion we belong to."

"If he says that I am the voice of the century, then I would say that he is the writer of the century."

"A good storyteller is the conscience-keeper."

"Words do not have teeth, still they bite; and once they bite, the wounds never heal."

"When you face your fear, you become familiar with it, and familiarity makes it lose its meaning, loosen its grip - fear ceases to be fear."

"Music has a natural place in our lives. Right from the shloka you recite in your morning puja and the milkman who comes whistling on his cycle, to the fakir singing as he begs for alms and your mother humming around the kitchen...Music fills our spaces naturally. It will always be dear to us."

"Lata was beyond words. She was a miracle that will happen never again."

"[When asked about his film release on Eid or Diwali] The best time to release a film is on a festive date like Divali or Eid, or at a time when there are no big films three to four weeks before or after."

"On Aamir Khan"

"I still don’t have any real interest in painting. I haven’t spoken about it either. I paint for my foundation.. to sell my work for charity. I can’t ask anyone to support or praise my paintings. I’m not a beggar. Tomorrow even if I have nothing at all, I’ll do something or the other, but I won’t beg."

"Sometimes it happens with me that I start laughing and just can't stop."

"I never avoided the media. Truly, speaking I don’t have any grudges. See, I am ready to give all the answers. Actually, I have changed. There was a time, when I would show my annoyance but every action is guided by a reason. The media annoyed me. I still feel there are certain questions, which are personal, which only my parents or maybe the ones who are really close to me have the right to ask."

"I'm not possessive, I'm caring... Once you realize a person doesn't want that much care, you automatically back off."

"On Shah Rukh Khan"

"Why should I marry? One marries to have children, but I already have children! My nieces and nephews are my children. I wanted to marry to make babies, but now I have them, so marriage isn't that important, is it?"

"[When asked about the best actresses from the current crop] There's Rani, then there's Preity, Based on work, Aishwarya... Priyanka is very good... Then there are the new girls like Lara and Katrina. [When asked his favorite and the best out the lot] As an actor? Rani Mukerji. [Smiles]"

"In life go straight and turn right."

"On Rani Mukerji"

"For me acting, comes straight from the heart. In that sense I don't act at all. I think that to feel the character's pain I have to be myself. Somewhere audiences see that."

"[On his childhood problems and his father's second marriage to Helen] It was very difficult in the beginning, when everybody was talking about it. My mother just couldn't take it. It hurt her terribly. She used to worry all the time, go in to depression frequently. When she cried, we children used to cry with her"

"The older you get, the better you have to look, the higher you have to kick, the harder you have to work."

"I can get caught in many things but there is one thing I will never get caught in, and that is acting - because I don't act. On screen I am like I am in real life."

"The only person I have hurt is me."

"On Sonakshi Sinha"

"A lion runs to the fastest when he is hungry.But nomatter how the economy is of the country he can never eat grass."

"Nothing on earth can ruin my relationship with Salim uncle's family. Not many people know that my mother and Salman's father have acted in a film together. I've known the family for donkey's years. Salman and I have grown up together. If he sulks with me or acts tough, I can kick his ass. There can't be any problem between us."

"However, the fact that Mushrif has to apologise for giving his community good news from Gujarat, gives us an idea of the kind of intellectual terror Congress and its “secular” allies have come to exercise among Muslims. They must appear as permanent victims in the Congress scheme of things or else be declared traitors as happened with Salman Khan, who dared speak a few mild words in favour of Modi’s regime or, worse still, be bulldozed into silence as happened with Maulana Vastanvi."

"Shilpa Shetty"

"Priyanka Chopra"

"Preity Zinta"

"Diya Mirza"

"Katrina Kaif"

"Bipasha Basu"

"I'm a huge Salman fan. I`m not just waiting; I`m dying to work with him. And he has huge fan following at my office. My writers and directors are a smitten bunch. They tell me, take your time signing him for a film, but please just call him to the office so we can interact, click pics and chat with him."

"Ameesha Patel"

"Hrithik Roshan"