This [the earthquake] was a very big influence on me, and the issue of life and death from then on does recur in my films.

The one-word cinema wasn't possible for me anymore. I'd hit a wall, a dead end. Therefore I thought I'd turn back.

Having an international voice is not really about whether we speak Persian or any other language.

I don't ask my students to have studied film or any education in general. What I ask them is to come and sit and tell me a story, and the way they choose it and tell it, for me, the best criteria for whether they are right for making films. There's nothing more important than being able to tell your story orally.

Directors don't always create, they can also destroy with too many demands.

Anything I've not experienced I do not look to for a subject. I have to feel it.

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