I like to give the actors the freedom, and they know they have the freedom, to change anything they want at any time.

We're living in a world that says that if you engage in mass fraud, you'll be rewarded, but if you go down the street and steal an orange juice, you get arrested.

The job of the writer and the filmmaker is not to impose his vision on the reality, but to be inspired by the reality and create a vision out of that.

The actors come and you start seeing things happen for real.

Most of the projects aren't that interesting anymore. There used to be a day when the studios made amazing films, and they were about human beings.

I like poetry, but honestly, I like dramatic literature more. If I had to pick between Rumi and Dostoevsky, I would pick Dostoevsky without even thinking about it. Ninety-nine out of 100 Iranians would probably pick Rumi. Kiarostami, too, would probably pick Rumi first. I try to have the meaning be in the action of the story, not in the symbolism. I want it to be in the action, and it's dramatic action that creates the meaning.

I'm not going to read reviews like, "I have to do these things." Any good criticism makes you think about your own films and about cinema in general.