I believe there's only good cinema and bad cinema.

I have somewhat lost my enthusiasm in the last years. Mainly because film students using digital video these days have not really produced anything which is more than superficial or simplistic; so I have my doubts.

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

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

As soon as people enter a theater they must become moron consumers who must be fed information.

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.

In my experience as a director, I think there is obviously something of the way men - maybe that's a common point with Shirin - the way men see women in the film, and the way these two characters see each other.