Human beings have a lot of problems identifying themselves with other human beings who don't resemble them exactly. But there's something about drawing that means that anyone can identify to a drawing. I mean, people can identify themselves with Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse.

You are putting yourself in serious danger...' I think that I preferred to put myself in serious danger rather than confront my shame. My shame at not having become someone, the shame of not having made my parents proud after all the sacrifices they had made for me. The shame of having become a mediocre nihilist.

With live-action I think we'd have lost the universal appeal of the Persepolis story. With live-action, it would have turned into a story of 'the Other' - people living in a distant land who don't look like us. It might have been exotic, but also a "Third-World" story.

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

I wanted to do my artistic work, and in Iran you have censorship. It was difficult for me to do the work I wanted to do.

I wasn't made to take orders. My grandmother used to tell me: 'Laws are for idiots.' She was right.

You draw the character from all angles - side, profile, back, etc. so the animator has this character in all the ways it looks like.