Director

Film is very much a universal and common voice, and we can't limit it to one particular culture.

I have no advice for anyone on how to live.

I think Woody Allen is Woody Allen, and no matter where he goes he still makes his Woody Allen films.

Religion works on some people but not on everyone, because it says, 'Stop thinking and accept what I tell you.' That's not valid for people who want to think and reflect.

In the total darkness, poetry is still there, and it is there for you.

There are at least two retrospectives of my work each year in some country.

My films have been progressing towards a certain kind of minimalism, even though it was never intended. Elements which can be eliminated have been eliminated.

Cinema gives you the opportunity to be both a grandparent and a grandchild whereas in life you cannot be both at the same time.

Poetry always runs away from you - it's very difficult to grasp it, and every time you read it, depending on your conditions, you will have a different grasp of it. Whereas with a novel, once you have read it, you have grasped it.

The world is my workshop. It is not my home.

If you are a businessman or a politician in Iran, you can get a visa as quickly as you ask for it.

I've often noticed that we are not able to look at what we have in front of us, unless it's inside a frame.

I never reflect or convey that which I have not experienced myself.

I film normal-life subjects in natural settings that some people would consider uncinematic. But what I want to show is nature itself, as the truth of life.

I don't know whether it is fortunate or unfortunate, but I have no such thing as national pride. I don't feel proud that I am Iranian. I happen to be who I am.

I can watch films and say how technically beautiful they are, but I'm not impressed by any technicality.

Everybody knows that I am not usually patient enough to actually sit down and watch one of my own films from the beginning to the end - I never do.

I don't know whether it is fortunate or unfortunate, but I have no such thing as national pride. I don't feel proud that I am Iranian. I happen to be who I am.