There is no privilege in restriction. In other words, I disagree with people who say restriction makes you more creative. I think that's a misleading slogan. I might have been more creative without them than with them.

Whether we like it or not, the modernity is something that comes from Western countries, and when the modernity comes to the Eastern countries, although they feel like they really need it, at the same time it shakes the very fundament of the culture - there is always this challenge between the two.

The bigger confrontation is the one an individual has with itself.

I see screenwriting as a bit like a math equation which I have to solve.

There is no privilege in restriction. In other words, I disagree with people who say restriction makes you more creative. I think that's a misleading slogan. I might have been more creative without them than with them.

Poetry, especially traditional Iranian poetry, is very good at looking at things from a number of different angles simultaneously.

I'm always careful about the thing I'm writing to make sure a viewer can imagine it happening to themselves.