Born on June 22nd

"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 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."

"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."

"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."

"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 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."

"Cinema seats make people lazy. They expect to be given all the information. But for me, question marks are the punctuation of life."

"From my very first movie, what was my concentration, my inspiration, was I didn't want to narrate something, I didn't want to tell a story. I wanted to show something, I wanted for them to make their own story from what they were seeing."

"Film is very much a universal and common voice, and we can't limit it to one particular culture."

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

"My way of expression is full of complications and mystery because that's my perception of life."

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

"Whenever people ask me what the story is for my next film, I won't tell and people feel it's because I'm being secretive or something, but it's actually because I'm ashamed to sum up a film in three sentences."

"A movie is about human beings, about humanity."

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

"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."

"I never really learned photography."

"I am a citizen of the world."

"I think I really produce my best work in Iran."

"I think Woody Allen is Woody Allen, and no matter where he goes he still makes his Woody Allen films."

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

"To me, AIDS is an international epidemic and every country can be affected by it. Therefore, it can be discussed on an international level. Unfortunately, AIDS doesn't require a visa."

"As film-makers, it is very important for us to find common ground between cultures, and maybe that's less the case for politicians who benefit more from finding the conflicts and differences between us."

"Poetry always runs away from you - it's very difficult to grasp it, and every time you read it, depending on your conditions, you will have a different grasp of it. Whereas with a novel, once you have read it, you have grasped it."

"I would be too selfish if I said everyone should see my movies more than once. To say that would mean I'm just marketing my work!"

"I prefer the countryside to cities. This is also true of my films: I have made more films in rural societies, and villages, than in towns."

"I spend a lot of time doing carpentry. Sometimes there is nothing that gives me the contentment that sawing a piece of wood does."

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