I don't like films giving me answers. I like films that are provoking me, that are making me feel not only being in an easy place.

When I won the Oscar, there was something telling me 'this isn't the truth'. I had to get back to real work.

What I need is to express my passion for life... It's movement I'm interested in, the life in me, the life in humanity.

In Iran, the women are like Italian women, they rule the house inside. But it's full of life. The history is very rich. The mystic of the Middle Ages. We have to learn from them. They influence all the philosophers when they came to Europe all those many many years ago.

I won't do something just for the sake of working.

It's not a struggle to be on a diet. You feel lighter, and your spirit is lighter, too. But I love chocolate, and I allow myself to have chocolate. That doesn't go against a diet for me.

I like travelling and if I have to come to Hollywood to make a movie I will, but otherwise I'd never move there. It's very much an industry town and that doesn't really interest me.