Satyajit Ray says in the book: 'I don't feel very creative when I'm abroad somehow. I need to be in my chair in Calcutta!

'When a writer is at a loss for words, he can turn to his thesaurus; but there is no thesaurus for the filmmaker. He can fall back on clichés, of course -- goodness knows how many films have used the snuffed-out candle to suggest death -- but the really effective language is both fresh and vivid at the same time, and the search for it is an inexhaustible one.'