He read his mind. He's a strange sort of man, isn't he? It's not just the advice and the wisdom that he has.

This character in the film, these things that he says which sound like advice and wise things, they are very common for Orientals. It's all the tradition.

They didn't accept me theory - not a theory, but just a thought I had about this character. I noticed that this man only exists when the boy comes into the grocery.

I'm very wary about giving advice. I think it's very dangerous to give advice to people, except if you know them very well.

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner. -General Omar Bradley.

This is one of the factors that also made me very much want to make this film, apart from the fact that I loved it. If the boy hadn't been Jewish and the man hadn't been Muslim, it wouldn't have made any difference to the film. I don't think it's relevant, really.