If I have one message to give to the secular American people, it's that the world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same.

As a director, you have to understand what is happening - if I don't understand it, you can't make changes.

In every religion, you find the same extremists.

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

Cinema is a world of imagination.

America is a very special place. In this country, you have the best and the worst at the same time. Whatever you can imagine.

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