Quotes

You can't achieve anything without getting in someone's way.

Consensus is what many people say in chorus but do not believe as individuals.

One of the chief tasks of any dialogue with the Gentile world is to prove that the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all.

The Jews are the living embodiment of the minority, the constant reminder of what duties societies owe their minorities, whoever they might be.

Time and again these governments have rejected proposals today - and longed for them tomorrow.

Lest Arab governments be tempted out of sheer routine to rush into impulsive rejection, let me suggest that tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss.

A statesman who keeps his ear permanently glued to the ground will have neither elegance of posture nor flexibility of movement.

A work of art doesn't exist outside the perception of the audience.

I've often noticed that we are not able to look at what we have in front of us, unless it's inside a frame.

In the total darkness, poetry is still there, and it is there for you.

I really think that I don't mind people sleeping during my films, because I know that some very good films might prepare you for sleeping or falling asleep or snoozing. It's not to be taken badly at all. This is something I really mean.

Good cinema is what we can believe, and bad cinema is what we can't believe.

Cinema gives you the opportunity to be both a grandparent and a grandchild whereas in life you cannot be both at the same time.

When I talk to some of the younger filmmakers, they are so worried about their films that, eventually, this state of being worried reflects itself in and helps the final work. Whereas, with projects that are meticulously planned, you look at the end result and it is full of emptiness.

The calling of art is to extract us from our daily reality, to bring us to a hidden truth that's difficult to access - to a level that's not material but spiritual.

In order to be universal, you have to be rooted in your own culture.

The day we run out of petrol is the day Iran will be free.

I feel like a tree. A tree doesn't feel a duty to start doing something about the earth from which it comes. A tree just has to bear fruit, and leaves and blossoms. It doesn't feel grateful to the earth.

Digital photography is, by definition, unfinished. You don't feel that after every 24 or 36 shots you have to change your film - you know you can go on for ever if you want. You can see the result immediately, and find out if your original idea is worth going on with or not, whether it can be corrected, whether it can be improved.

Religion works on some people but not on everyone, because it says, 'Stop thinking and accept what I tell you.' That's not valid for people who want to think and reflect.

I would say that no film is apolitical. There are politics in all films. Any film that is anchored in a society, any film that deals with humanity is necessarily political.

There is violence in real life but I would never impose violence in a film just to attract the audience.

The world is my workshop. It is not my home.

A good movie is made by an initial burst of energy, the way that, when you are in school, your class exercises are always better than your final projects.

I don't know whether it is fortunate or unfortunate, but I have no such thing as national pride. I don't feel proud that I am Iranian. I happen to be who I am.