If you have a little sensibility or a heart, you have all the reason to be depressed once in a while. But the depression is like a motor for creation. I need a little bit of depression, a bit of acid in my stomach, to be able to create. When I'm happy, I just want to dance.

I call Iran home because no matter how long I live in France, and despite the fact that I feel also French after all these years, to me the word 'home' has only one meaning: Iran. I suppose it's that way for everyone: Home is the place where one is born and raised.

I realized that I was more of a sprinter than a marathon man. With a long, long project, I get bored easily.

I realized then that I didn't understand anything. I read all the books I could.

Politicians think they have answers for everything. We artists, we only have questions.

I like to make mechanical stuff. Once I make a film I have to do whatever I can make onstage I make it onstage.

I don't consider myself as a feminist but more a humanist.