I try to look at life carefully and reproduce life the way life is. It's a question of looking carefully at how it is. In life, you don't have total happiness. People always say that. But you don't have total sadness either, no matter what situation you are living in.

I wrote the plot [for the Persepolis ]and Vincent [Paronnaud] and I wrote and discussed the shooting of the script. Vincent then took care of the production design, the actual shooting, and what was going on within each scene. It's very difficult, though, to draw a line between who did what. Because Vincent would say something, and I would add something, and at the end you have this film, yet no clear idea of who did what.

I'm not a religious person at all.

I'm a very individualistic person. That is why I don't belong to any political party or anything. I really believe in justice and freedom.

I never wanted to make a graphic novel. As soon as you become a 'writer,' you have to be intelligent all the time... I like the fact that I have the right once in a while to say silly things.

You know, they say in France that translation is like a woman: she is either beautiful or faithful.

I'm not a politician. I don't know how to solve the problems of the world. But as an artist, I have one duty: to ask questions.