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.

Those same people, when they leave the theater, when they look behind the curtains they are curious about their neighbors, they can guess if their neighbors are siblings or a couple, how old they are, what their occupation is. They are curious about each other and they can understand each other without being fed information. Why should it be different in cinema?

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.

I would be too selfish if I said everyone should see my movies more than once. To say that would mean I'm just marketing my work!

I think being someone in love is so hard to define, so temporary, because retrospectively we often deny the state in which we were in love.

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.

If I do continue to have the opportunity to work in Iran, that's very much what I'd prefer to do.