For me, drawing is a question of death and life. Every day I draw, I write, I do something.

If you know a little bit the psychology of human beings, you have to understand that if you say something you should not do, then everybody wants to do it.

With animation, if something does not fit, you always have the time to change it. When you make a live-action movie, when your days of shooting are over, they are over forever.

Words also are filters. They have to be translated. Even in the original language, there is interpretation and some ambiguity. If there's a cultural difference between the writer and the reader, that might come out in words. But with pictures, there's more efficiency.

Here [in the USA], you have the best laws for freedom of expression. The problem is that expression can be bought by people who don't want you have it. Apparently, true patriotism destroys freedom of expression.

The most natural thing for us is drawing. The characters [in Persepolis] are hand drawn. We're not technical people. We don't know how to type.

It's true that, in Iran, women have half of the rights men do. And yet 66 per cent of students are women.