I did not go to film school.
I aspire to eventually be making my living by making movies.
I am not stopped by low funds, physical exhaustion, mental exhaustion, or temptations to stop and work on some other production that would be more financially rewarding.
Each feature I make is my focus at that time.
Cinema has only been around for about 100 years. Has all of the world's violence towards women taken place only within the past 100 years?
And the fact that you must make the movie for yourself because no one else will ever fully appreciate the endeavor, makes it a more rewarding challenge.
Also, I plan to screw something up on every movie I do so that I can learn from my mistakes and become a better director with each project.
Violent behavior exists in one's psychological makeup much deeper than the level that receives information from television or movies.
Directors who turn into big babies and shut out criticism stop learning.
Censorship of ideas or images or words is wrong.
Most of my technical knowledge comes from having worked in the industrial video industry.
I'm not impressed by someone's degree... I'm impressed by them making movies.
Everyone has an opinion, and the guy screaming for censorship may be the next guy to have his ideas cut off.
We're always looking at this love through the eyes of the person who is suffering because of this love.
To tell you the truth, in my work, love is always in opposition to the elements. It creates dilemmas. It brings in suffering. We can't live with it, and we can't live without it. You'll rarely find a happy ending in my work.
There are mysteries, secret zones in each individual.
The television industry doesn't like to see the compexity of the world. It prefers simple reporting, with simple ideas: this is white, that's black; this is good, that's bad.
Someone knocks at the door of an apartment to borrow salt or sugar, people run into each other in the elevator, and in this way become inscribed in the spectator's memory.
Of course I'd like to get beyond the concrete. But it's really difficult. Very difficult.
In real life, there are names that surprise us because they don't seem to suit the person at all.
In believing too much in rationality, our contemporaries have lost something.
Do people really want liberty, equality, fraternity? Is it not some manner of speaking?
I have no problem being with people of different nationalities.
Maybe it is worth investigating the unknown, if only because the very feeling of not knowing is a painful one.
For me optimism is two lovers walking into the sunset arm in arm. Or maybe into the sunrise - whatever appeals to you.
I think I really produce my best work in Iran.
I spend a lot of time doing carpentry. Sometimes there is nothing that gives me the contentment that sawing a piece of wood does.
I really think that I don't mind people sleeping during my films, because I know that some very good films might prepare you for sleeping or falling asleep or snoozing. It's not to be taken badly at all. This is something I really mean.
I really enjoy listening to stories. I remember them and keep them in my mind.
I prefer the countryside to cities. This is also true of my films: I have made more films in rural societies, and villages, than in towns.
