Start [the movie] in color. Color is always attributed as fun, and black and white is very sad.

Death, torture and prison are part of daily life for the youth of Iran. They are not like us, my friends and I at their age; they are not scared. They are not what we were. They hold hands and scream: “Don’t be afraid! Don’t be afraid! We are together!” They understand that no one will give them their rights; they must go get them.

I'm not a religious person at all.

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

For me, who loves to draw and who loves to write and cannot choose between one or the other, the comic is the best form.

I don't like 'graphic novel.' It's a word that publishers created for the bourgeois to read comics without feeling bad. Comics is just a way of narrating - it's just a media type.

Life is too short to be lived badly.