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

I don't generally derive my stories from novels. I try to turn into film things I have felt or experienced.

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

I do think that we are sometimes, as directors, guilty of portraying or asking our actors to behave in certain ways that are perhaps not very morally acceptable. I'm not the only one.

My last experience of film-making was Tickets, a three-episode film in Italy, the third of which is directed by myself. It's not for me to judge whether it's a good film or a bad film, but what I could say is that nobody had a cultural or linguistic issue with what was produced.

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

The [Iranian] government grapples with more important issues and we can maybe say that these films don't really exist for them. It's not about whether they like it or don't; it's just not very important to them.